Rethmann SE & Co. KG is a German family business located in

Selm Selm () is a town in the district of Unna, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated approximately 20 kilometers north of Dortmund and 25 kilometers west of Hamm. Geography The town belongs to the southern part of the Münsterland ...

. It is the parent company of the international groups

Remondis Remondis is German multinational company for recycling, water resource management and industrial and communal services with headquarters in Lünen Lünen () is a town with around 86,000 inhabitants in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is loc ...

(recycling, service, water management), Rhenus (logistics) and

Saria Saria may refer to: * SARIA, a food company * Saria, Burkina Faso * Saria (mountain), an international mountain in the Anti-Lebanon mountain range * Saria, a heroine protagonist of Twinkle Tale * Saria (The Legend of Zelda), Saria (''The Legend of ...

(processing of animal by-products and organic waste). Since 2019, the Rethmann Group has also held a 34% stake in the French transport company

Transdev Transdev, formerly Veolia Transdev, is a France-based international private-sector company which operates public transport. It has operations in 17 countries and territories as of November 2020. Transdev was formed on 3 April 2011 via the merg ...

. The company is equally owned by the four brothers Klemens, Ludger, Georg and Martin Rethmann.

Company divisions

The Rethmann Group operates through four business groups: The Remondis Group is a private service provider in the water and

recycling Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the propert ...

industry. The company offers services from water supply and treatment to the gaining and recycling of raw materials, the development of recycling products and the provision of

alternative energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...

sources. The Rhenus Group is a logistics service provider with Automotive, Contract Logistics, Overland Transport, Port Logistics and Air & Ocean business divisions. The Saria Group is active in the utilization of animal by-products and

food waste The causes of food going uneaten are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during food production, production, food processing, processing, Food distribution, distribution, Grocery store, retail and food service sales, and Social clas ...

and acts as a manufacturer of products for human and

animal nutrition Animal nutrition focuses on the dietary nutrients needs of animals, primarily those in agriculture and food production, but also in zoos, aquariums, and wildlife management. Constituents of diet Macronutrients (excluding fiber and water) provide ...

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

and industrial applications. Saria also produces green energy and provides services to the agricultural and food industries. The Transdev Group is a private operator of public transport. The French state-owned financial institution

Caisse des Dépôts Caisse, a French word, may refer to: * Caisse Desjardins, an association of credit unions in Quebec * Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears, a road-bicycle racing team * Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, a public pension fund in Quebec * Caisse ...

is an additional shareholder.

Company history

In 1934, Josef Rethmann laid the foundation for the family business by taking over a railway freight forwarder and a

haulage Haulage is the business of transporting goods by road or rail between suppliers and large consumer outlets, factories, warehouses, or depots. This includes everything humans might wish to move in bulk – from vegetables and other foodstuffs, to c ...

company that also was responsible for ash disposal for some households in Selm. After winning a tender, this contract was extended to cover the entire town in 1959 — thus laying the foundations for the Remondis Group. In 1961, Norbert Rethmann (born in 1939) took over the management of the family business. In 1992, Norbert Rethmann transferred almost all his shares in the company to his four sons and became chairman of the supervisory board. Hermann Niehues, who had been with the company since 1978, became CEO. In 1998, the Group's logistics division was further expanded with the acquisition of Rhenus AG & Co. When he took over, the turnover was 800 million

Deutsche Mark The Deutsche Mark (; "German mark (currency), mark"), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later of unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it ...

. In 2007, the Rethmann Group achieved consolidated sales of €7.2 billion. Following Niehues' fatal accident in the summer of 2008, Reinhard Lohmann, a graduate in business administration, took over as CEO on October 1, 2008. The brothers Ludger and Klemens Rethmann completed the three-member Board of Management. In 2010, Rethmann participated in the bidding process for Steag, Germany's fifth-largest energy supplier, but lost out to a municipal holding company of several municipal utilities from the Ruhr region in Germany. In January 2019, Rethmann acquired a 30% stake in the international transport group

from

Veolia Veolia Environnement S.A., branded as Veolia, is a French transnational company with activities in three main service and utility areas traditionally managed by public authorities – water management, waste management and energy services. In ...

. The stake was increased to 34% with the contribution of an additional 4% by Rhenus Veniro. Rethmann's former transport subsidiary, Rhenus Veniro, thus became part of Transdev.

Bibliography

* Stephan Mlodoch: ''Rethmann.'' In: ''Neue Deutsche Biographie'' (NDB). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4.

References

External links

{{Commonscat
Website
Companies established in 1934 German companies established in 1934 Logistics companies