Purpose and strategy
Our purpose ‘We move for all to grow’
Since our foundation in 1866, we have been moving goods and people – as well as moving mindsets and new, important agendas. Moving together with customers, partners, and our people every day to ensure the safe, reliable, and efficient transport of passengers and goods in and around Europe.
Moving together we develop better and smarter ways to keep our part of the world moving in a sustainable way. Moving together we empower people to fulfil ambitions, make an impact, and grow.
We move forward. We move as one. We move for all to grow.
Our ambition
In a world facing complexity, instability and the scarcity of resources, the need to find sustainable ways to operate our business is pivotal to our continued success. We have established ourselves as a trusted transport and logistics provider characterised by great people – who make our network come alive.
Our ambition is to become a greener and more digital business, for the sake of the planet, our customers and the communities we are a part of. We care for, support and develop our colleagues to reach their potential. When we stand together, we are thousands of colleagues with the passion, skills and commitment to succeed and continue to grow sustainably.
Our strategy: Moving Together Towards 2030
In the past years, we have grown and expanded not only our geographic network but also our range of services. The expanded network and capability upgrades have enhanced our customer relevance and ability to engage in more extensive customer partnerships.
Our Moving Together Towards 2030 strategy is focused on unlocking the value of our expanded network through organic growth by pursuing five strategic pillars.
"Our strategy is clear. Building on our rich history and strong presence in and around Europe, we aim to drive organic growth and unlock greater value of our network. As we move towards 2030, we focus on performance, simplifying operations, embracing digital transformation, prioritising decarbonisation, and ensuring that DFDS is a great and safe place to work. We want to make a positive impact in the communities and markets we serve and together achieve more sustainable growth."
— Torben Carlsen, President and CEO
Protect and grow profits
Protecting our market positions for long-term resilience and growing organically with customers are key strategic priorities.
We are driving organic growth by consistently providing reliable, efficient, and competitive ferry and logistics services and leveraging our expanded network, our wide range of customer offerings and presence in high growth markets.
In sum we will do this, by:
- Driving organic growth with broader geographic and product reach
- Enhancing a competitive cost base
- Benefiting from high-growth markets
- Continuing to develop strongholds
Standardise to simplify
The standardise to simplify strategy pillar is a response to the network expansion in recent years that has added new products and services, diverse approaches to operations, it-systems, and further legal entities. The priority is to streamline our operations and reap the scale benefits of the expanded network.
In sum we will do this, by:
- Standardising our operating procedures to enable data-driven decisions and automation
- Reducing complexity to secure efficiency and enable future growth
- Ensuring local commercial autonomy supported by globally aligned products and back-end services
Digitise to transform
Digitalisation is key to ensuring that DFDS remains competitive and continually offer digital services that can help our customers improve their operations. Our digital strategy pillar's key objectives are to enhance operating efficiency, improve customer experience, and enable our colleagues to work safer and smarter.
In sum we will do this, by:
- Transforming the way we connect with our customers
- Reshaping the way we operate
- Deploying a future proof technology platform
Moving to green
DFDS is committed to drive the green transition within ferry and logistics with ambitious climate targets and investments in electric trucks, biofuel, low emission ferries and operational efficiency. We are addressing key environmental high-impact areas and have started to provide low-emission transportation, products and services that support the decarbonisation of our customers' supply chains.
In sum we will do this, by:
- Prioritising decarbonisation initiatives according to long term impact
- Implementing agreed initiatives to reach 2030 targets
- Continuing rollout of e-trucks; launch green vessels
- Developing Green commercial products
Great place to work
It is our ambition to be a preferred employer for current and potential employees. We strive to support our employees in unlocking their full professional potential and provide them with a 'great place to work' that is safe, diverse, inclusive, and driven by engaging leaders
In sum we will do this, by:
- Being a safe place to work
- Promoting diversity, equity and inclusion
- Ensuring engaging leadership
We move for all to grow
We move freight and passengers reliably and efficiently
We care about the safety of our passengers and employees, and about minimising our environmental footprint
