DHL on Frankfurt Stock Exchange

DHL Group

Logo: DHL Group, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons4

German logistics company

DHL AG, trading as DHL Group, is a German multinational package delivery and supply chain management company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is one of the world's largest courier companies. The postal division, Deutsche Post, delivers 61 million letters each day in Germany, making it Europe's largest such company.2 Its chief executive is Tobias Meyer (since 2023).1 It employed about 547,700 people in 2023.1 Its revenue was €81.8 billion in 2023.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

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Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1989Founded1

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  • TickerDHL on Frankfurt Stock Exchange1
  • Industrylogistics, mail, postal and telecommunications services1
  • HeadquartersPost Tower1
  • Websitewww.dpdhl.com
  • Legal formAktiengesellschaft1
  • LEI8ER8GIG7CSMVD8VUFE783
  • StatusActive3
  • LEI statusIssued and current3
  • Registered addressCharles-de-Gaulle-Str. 20, 53113 Bonn, Germany3
  • Registered withLocal Court Bonn, HRB 67923
Posttower Bonn 001
Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons7

DHL AG, trading as DHL Group, is a German multinational package delivery and supply chain management company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is one of the world's largest courier companies. The postal division, Deutsche Post, delivers 61 million letters each day in Germany, making it Europe's largest such company. The trade name's eponymous parcel division DHL is a wholly owned subsidiary claimed to be present in over 220 countries and territories. DHL Group was the largest logistics company worldwide in 2022.2

Corporate structure

DHL Group sits at the top of its group. 44 entities, 14 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

What it owns

What DHL Group reports owning in its annual reports to the SEC: buildings, land and equipment, real estate and locations, investments, intangible assets and inventory, at the end of its latest fiscal year and a year before.

Stakes and holdings (Wikidata)

Things Wikidata records the company as owning, with the share when stated.1

The story

DHL Group has become a large, world-wide company in about two decades. The following are significant dates in the development into its current form.

2 January 1995: Deutsche Bundespost Postdienst becomes Deutsche Post AG; this is the company's privatization. The government of Germany still owns a large share of the company; the state development bank KfW owns 50 percent.

1998: Deutsche Post begins acquiring shares in DHL International.

1999: Deutsche Post World Net acquires the Dutch distribution company Van Gend & Loos from Nedlloyd and in 2000 the Swiss distribution company Danzas.

20 November 2000: Deutsche Post AG becomes a fully private company, with a new board of directors, in an IPO listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The government of Germany sells one third of its shares and KfW bank sells some of its shares.

December 2002: Deutsche Post AG acquires the remaining shares in DHL International.

August 2003: The company acquires the Seattle-based Airborne Express (est. 1946). The company integrates Van Gend & Loos, Danzas, Airborne Express, and its own EuroExpress into DHL to form DHL Express.

December 2005: The group acquires the logistics company Exel in the UK, a £3.7 billion (€5.5 billion) takeover; Exel provided transport for corporate customers.

Read the full text

2006: DHL GlobalMail UK merges with Mercury International.

December 2014: The group acquires StreetScooter GmbH, a small manufacturer of electric vehicles in Aachen, Germany.

December 2016: The group completes the purchase of UK Mail, a business-focused postal service - "one of the largest integrated parcels and mail operations in the U.K." – for US$315.5 (£243) million. The former company becomes a division of the Deutsche Post European parcel network, although its web site reveals only a relationship with DHL Express. Since the acquisition, UK Mail has rebranded as DHL Parcel UK and now operates domestic parcel services under the DHL network.

February 2019: The group reaches an agreement with SF Express (SF Holding) for its supply chain operations in China.

From Wikipedia’s article on DHL Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5

Leadership

Who has led DHL Group, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

19901995200020052010201520202025
Board members and other officers (5)

Products and brands

Corporate divisions

Post and parcel division

The postal division delivers approximately 61 million letters every working day in Germany, and provides services across the entire mail value chain, including production facilities at central hubs, sales offices and production centers on four continents.

This division inherited most of the traditional mail services formerly offered by the state-owned monopoly, for which it uses the Deutsche Post brand. Its exclusive right to deliver letters under 50 grams in Germany expired on 1 January 2008, following the implementation of European legislation. In 2002, Deutsche Post was granted a license to deliver mail in the United Kingdom, breaking Royal Mail's long-standing monopoly.

In 2016, in Germany alone, the Post & Parcel (P&P) division delivered over 1.2 billion parcels, an increase of 9.3% over 2015, much of it as result of shipping products purchased by customers on-line. The e-commerce aspect helped to generate a great deal of revenue. This division's revenue increased by 4.1 percent to €16.8 billion while earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased by 30.8 percent to over €1.4 billion.

eCommerce division

Since financial year 2019, DHL Group has been pooling its international parcel delivery operations in the eCommerce division.

Read the full text

Express division

The DHL Express division offers worldwide courier, express and parcel shipment service, combining air and ground transport, under the DHL brand. It owns five airlines: European Air Transport Leipzig, DHL Air UK, DHL Aero Expreso, SNAS/DHL and Blue Dart Aviation.

In 2016, this division's revenue increased by 2.7 per cent to €14 billion. The operating profit before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased by 11.3% over 2015 to €1.5 billion.

Express is divided into business units along regions:

Europe

Asia Pacific

Americas

Europe, the Middle East and Africa

Global Forwarding – Freight division

The DHL Global Forwarding division carries goods by rail, road, air and sea under the DHL brand and includes the DHL Freight operation which runs a ground-based freight network covering Europe, Russia and traffic into the Middle East. In 2016, this division's revenue declined by 7.7 percent to €13.7 billion but operating profit before interest and taxes (EBIT) improved from -€181 million in 2015 to +€287 million.

Supply Chain division

The DHL Supply Chain division provides contract logistics and corporate information. In 2016, this division's revenue decreased by 11.6% to €14.0 billion versus 2015, but operating profit improved by 27.4% to €572 million.

The division consists of two main business units:

DHL Supply Chain provides warehousing and warehouse transport for customers from a wide variety of sectors.

Corporate Information Solutions handles documents (collection, digitalisation, printing, storage, archival) of all types.

In July, 2020, Deutsche Post DHL Group significantly increased earnings in Q2 2020 despite COVID-19. Operating profit (EBIT) improved by around 16% to around EUR 890 million.

Electric van manufacturing

In December 2014, Deutsche Post DHL Group purchased StreetScooter GmbH, a small manufacturer of electric vehicles in Aachen, Germany. By April 2016, the company announced that it would produce 2,000 of the StreetScooter Work model in Aachen by year end.

The Work vehicle is equipped with lithium-ion battery packs and is powered by 30 kW asynchronous electric motors. The peak/continuous output is stated as 48 kW/38 kW. The range (before the need to recharge) is said to be 50 to 80 km, depending on the weight of the load and traffic conditions. The load capacity is 710 kg.

Deutsche Post's 2016 annual report indicates that it plans to replace its fleet of delivery vehicles in Germany with the electric StreetScooter products "in the medium term". Electric vans and trucks with a much greater range will be required to achieve the very long-term goal of replacing the group's entire fleet of approximately 70,000 vehicles with electric StreetScooter vehicles.

A mass production plan was announced in April 2016. StreetScooter GmbH would be scaling up to manufacture approximately 10,000 vehicles annually, starting in 2017. If that goal is achieved, it will become Europe's largest electric light utility vehicle manufacturer, surpassing Renault, which makes vans such as the Kangoo Z.E.

StreetScooter showed a larger prototype, the Work L, in September 2016 that will provide double the capacity in cargo size; its load capacity will be 1,000 kg. The range (before recharging is necessary) is estimated at "up to 100 km". The company also announced that it was developing a Work Orange model with an "electro-hydraulic three-way dumper" for use by businesses that deal in trash or construction material handling.

In 2021, plans for the sale of Streetscooter to Luxembourg-based Odin Automotive, now B-ON, were reported.

Brands

Deutsche Post – offers domestic mail services under its traditional name; the division is called Post - eCommerce - Parcel (PeP).

DHL – brand used as an umbrella brand for worldwide logistics services.

Power Packaging – supplier of food and beverage contract manufacturing and packaging services to North American companies.

StreetScooter – electric vehicle manufacturer owned by the group since December 2014.

From Wikipedia’s article on DHL Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5

Subsidiaries and ownership

Owners

Subsidiaries

Divisions

Also owns

Subsidiaries (GLEIF)

From Wikidata.1 Ownership links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); each one cites its LEI record.

Acquisitions

  1. 2002Acquired DHL1
  2. Succeeded Deutsche Bundespost1

Employees over time

DHL Group employees by year1547.7K in 2023+12% since 2014
0200.0K400.0K600.0K2014: 488.8K488.8K20142015: 497.7K497.7K2015+2%2016: 459.3K459.3K2016−8%2017: 472.2K472.2K2017+3%2018: 547.5K547.5K2018+16%2019: 499.5K499.5K2019−9%2020: 502.2K502.2K2020+1%2021: 528.1K528.1K2021+5%2022: 542.9K542.9K2022+3%2023: 547.7K547.7K2023+1%
  • 2023547,6921
  • 2022542,9171
  • 2021528,0791
  • 2020502,2071
  • 2019499,4611
  • 2018547,4591
  • 2017472,2081
  • 2016459,2621

Revenue over time

As stated on Wikidata, in the currency reported.

Revenue

DHL Group revenue by year181.8B EUR in 2023+44% since 2014
025.0B EUR50.0B EUR75.0B EUR100.0B EUR2014: 56.6B EUR56.6B EUR20142015: 59.2B EUR59.2B EUR2015+5%2016: 57.3B EUR57.3B EUR2016−3%2017: 60.4B EUR60.4B EUR2017+5%2018: 61.5B EUR61.5B EUR2018+2%2019: 63.3B EUR63.3B EUR2019+3%2020: 66.8B EUR66.8B EUR2020+5%2021: 81.7B EUR81.7B EUR2021+22%2022: 94.4B EUR94.4B EUR2022+16%2023: 81.8B EUR81.8B EUR2023−13%
  • 202381.8B EUR1
  • 202294.4B EUR1
  • 202181.7B EUR1
  • 202066.8B EUR1
  • 201963.3B EUR1
  • 201861.5B EUR1

Net income

DHL Group net income by year13.7B EUR in 2023+78% since 2014
02.0B EUR4.0B EUR6.0B EUR2014: 2.1B EUR2.1B EUR20142015: 1.5B EUR1.5B EUR2015−26%2016: 2.6B EUR2.6B EUR2016+71%2017: 2.7B EUR2.7B EUR2017+3%2018: 2.1B EUR2.1B EUR2018−24%2019: 2.6B EUR2.6B EUR2019+26%2020: 3.0B EUR3.0B EUR2020+14%2021: 5.1B EUR5.1B EUR2021+70%2022: 5.4B EUR5.4B EUR2022+6%2023: 3.7B EUR3.7B EUR2023−31%
  • 20233.7B EUR1
  • 20225.4B EUR1
  • 20215.1B EUR1
  • 20203.0B EUR1
  • 20192.6B EUR1
  • 20182.1B EUR1

Timeline

  1. Jul 1, 2023Went public Listed on Frankfurt Stock Exchange1
  2. May 4, 2023New chief executive Tobias Meyer becomes CEO1
  3. Feb 18, 2008New chief executive Frank Appel becomes CEO1
  4. Nov 20, 2000Went public Listed on Frankfurt Stock Exchange1
  5. 1989Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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