VLS-Group history

The history of the VLS-Group goes back to the year 1616 with the foundation of the company “Blauwhoeden Vriesveem” in Amsterdam, which company was active in handling & warehousing of cargo in the port of Amsterdam. In 1818 another company “Pakhuismeesteren”, which was specialised at that time in handling & warehousing of tea was founded. Both companies merged in 1976 into a new company “Pakhoed NV”.

Pakhoed NV developed further during the following years into a global company offering specialised services to the chemical & oil industry. These services were bulk liquid tank storage, chemical tanker shipping, tanker chartering and complementary and additional logistic services such as warehousing (Antwerpen & Rotterdam) and forwarding services.

In 1839, the maritime company “Van Ommeren” was founded in Rotterdam which also developed its activities in similar business fields, like bulk liquid tank storage, bulk liquids shipping with tankers and logistics services.

Royal Vopak
In the year 1999, the merger of “Royal Van Ommeren” and “Royal Pakhoed” took place and a new company “Royal Vopak NV” was established. Both companies (and former competitors) served the same line of businesses and often the same customers and this merger into Royal Vopak created a global, specialised, well equipped and strong player in the logistics business for the chemical and oil industry.

As a result of that merger also the logistics divisions of both groups were merged into one business unit under the name of “Vopak Logistic Services” , specialised in warehousing and forwarding logistic services.

As a result of a change in the general strategy of Royal Vopak in the year 2003, Vopak decided to concentrate on the global bulk liquid tank storage activities only and to divest all other business units such as for instance the Shipping and the Logistic Services division.

VLS-Group
At the end of 2003 (December) the “VLS-Group” was established through a Management Buy-Out (MBO) by the management of the former Vopak business unit Logistic Services.

VLS-Group became an independent operating company focussed and specialised on the warehousing activities for packed chemicals (hazardous and non-classified materials). VLS-Group and Royal Vopak have agreed on a strategic alliance between the two groups for the co-operation - in each others field of play - for shared and new customers.

Expansion in warehouses
In line with the strategy of the VLS-Group to offer integrated logistic solutions on various strategic European locations, next to the existing Antwerpen and Rotterdam warehouses, an expansion programme was initialised. As a first step of its strategy the VLS-Group took over the chemical warehouse of Den Hartogh in Moerdijk (Netherlands) and the chemical warehouse of ABX Logistics in Frankfurt (Germany) during the course of 2005. Both additional warehouses became 100% VLS warehouse locations.

Furthermore a partnership was created with Sinteco srl, an Italian (Milan) based specialised service provider for warehousing and transportation of packed chemicals.

Expansion in logistics & forwarding
At the end of 2005 both “Vopak Logistics Management Germany” and “Vopak Logistics Management Netherlands” (both forwarding/logistics offices of Royal Vopak) were also acquired by the VLS-Group.

This acquisition took place in view of extending the VLS service package to its customers by offering additional logistic/transport services next to the already existing warehousing activities. In order to fulfill the logistics needs of its esteemed customers these forwarding services (road-rail-air-maritime-multimodal) fit into the VLS strategy and meet towards the customers requirements to handle inbound and outbound product flows via the warehouses or as direct deliveries. Ever since, the VLS-Group has further developed into a leading logistic service provider specialized in adding value to logistics for the chemical industry.