Head & Lubben

What Head & Lubben does

Kopf & Lübben GmbH (Head & Lubben) is a privately held German freight forwarding and logistics company headquartered in Bremen, founded in 1976, that provides multi-modal international transport services to B2B importers and exporters. The service portfolio spans ocean freight (FCL and LCL), air freight, road freight, rail freight, and a combined Sea/Air product, complemented by customs clearance, transport insurance, warehousing, and general logistics handling. The firm operates from four owned offices: Bremen (HQ), Frankfurt (at Cargo City Süd, the Frankfurt Airport cargo terminal), Hamburg, and Hong Kong (K+L Cargo Services Ltd. at ATL Logistics Centre, Kwai Chung), giving it direct coverage of Germany's principal logistics gateways plus an in-region Asia-Pacific presence.

The underlying technology stack is intentionally standard rather than proprietary: shipment management runs on Cargosoft SCM (accessed via a public Track & Trace link), electronic data interchange follows ADSp 2017 terms, and the public website is a WordPress build on commodity German hosting (Mittwald) with Adobe Fonts, CleverReach for newsletters, and Google Tag Manager/Analytics for web telemetry. Customer-facing digital touchpoints consist of a quote/contact form pipeline, a bilingual (German/English) site, social channels (LinkedIn, Xing, Facebook, Instagram), and a customer self-service portal called KL Connected. There is no public API, SDK, or proprietary software product, and no disclosed AI/ML capability, integrations with shipper TMS systems, or technology partnerships beyond hosting and analytics tooling.

The business model is transaction-fee freight forwarding: revenue is generated per shipment based on weight, volume, route, mode, and ancillary services (customs, insurance, warehousing), with no publicly disclosed pricing, framework contracts, or subscription tiers. GTM is sales-led and relationship-driven, executed through direct B2B account management at each regional office and inbound quote requests via the website. The customer base is described as a horizontal B2B segment of manufacturing, trading, and retail firms engaged in international trade, but no customer logos, case studies, or top-account disclosures are public, leaving customer concentration unobservable. Ownership is independent Mittelstand with no parent company, no external investors, and no funding rounds disclosed; Thomas Manigk is listed as managing director on the commercial register (HRB 6381, Amtsgericht Bremen).

Name

Head & Lubben

Legal name

Kopf & Lübben GmbH

Website

https://kopf-luebben.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1976

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Kopf & Lübben GmbH is a Bremen-headquartered German freight forwarder offering multi-modal ocean, air, road, and rail freight forwarding, customs clearance, and transport insurance to B2B importers and exporters across offices in Bremen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Hong Kong.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Freight Forwarding and Logistics Services

NAICS

Freight Transportation Arrangement (488510)

SIC

Arrangement Of Transportation Of Freight & Cargo (4731)

akta.pro primary industry

Cross-Border Intermodal (Customs-in-Transit/Transit Regimes) Forwarding (TLACAEAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Customs Brokerage for Ocean Shipments (Import/Export Clearance) (TLACABAG), Ocean Export Forwarding (Booking/VGM/SI/BL) (TLACABAF), Ocean Import Forwarding (Destination Handling/DO/ISF) (TLACABAE)

Keywords

• Freight forwarding services
• Ocean freight forwarding
• Air freight services
• Customs clearance services
• Multimodal logistics

Headquarters

HQ city

Bremen

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Freight Forwarding Services: Kopf & Lübben generates revenue through freight forwarding fees for ocean freight, air freight, road freight, and rail freight services. The company charges for transport organization, customs handling, and related logistics services. Revenue is derived from service fees based on shipment characteristics (weight, volume, destination, transport mode) and ancillary services such as transport insurance and customs clearance.
2. Logistics and Value-Added Services: Additional revenue streams include customs clearance services, transport insurance arrangement, warehousing, and Sea/Air combined transport solutions. These ancillary services complement core freight forwarding and generate additional transaction-based fees.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Kopf & Lübben GmbH is a German freight forwarding company that organizes intercontinental transport of goods via ocean, air, road, and rail freight for B2B importers and exporters. The company complements its core forwarding services with customs clearance, transport insurance, warehousing, and combined Sea/Air solutions, delivered through a network of offices in Bremen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Hong Kong.

Product overview

Kopf + Lübben (K+L) is a traditional freight forwarding and logistics services provider offering a comprehensive portfolio of transportation services. The core offering consists of five main freight services: Ocean Freight (ocean cargo transport), Air Freight (air cargo), Road Freight (trucking), Rail Freight (railway transport), and Logistics (warehousing and handling). These are complemented by a combined Sea/Air service and add-on services including customs clearance and transport insurance. The company operates as a single integrated service offering rather than a modular software platform, with all services delivered through their network of offices in Germany (Bremen, Frankfurt, Hamburg) and Hong Kong.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Ocean Freight (Seefracht) International ocean freight forwarding services for shipping goods via sea routes worldwide, including container (FCL) and less-than-container-load (LCL) shipments. Designed for B2B importers and exporters.
• Air Freight (Luftfracht) Air cargo transportation services for time-sensitive shipments, offering both import and export air freight capabilities for B2B customers.
• Road Freight Road transportation services for door-to-door cargo delivery across European and international road networks for B2B shippers.
• Rail Freight (Bahnfracht) Rail cargo services for transporting goods via railway networks, including intermodal solutions for B2B customers.
• Logistics Comprehensive logistics services including warehousing, cargo handling, labeling, weighing, and returns processing for B2B customers.
• Sea/Air Combined Transport Combined sea and air freight solution bridging ocean and air transport for optimized cost-speed balance on intercontinental routes.
• Customs Clearance (Zollabfertigung) Customs documentation handling, classification, and clearance services for import and export shipments.
• Transport Insurance Cargo insurance services arranging goods-in-transit and warehousing insurance coverage for shipments.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• BVL (Bundesvereinigung Logistik)minorOthersBVL (Bundesvereinigung Logistik / German Logistics Association) is a logistics industry association. The logo appears in the website footer alongside other logistics network affiliations. The nature of the relationship appears to be membership/association with the professional body for the logistics industry.
• The Cooperative Logistics NetworkminorOthersThe Cooperative Logistics Network is a logistics industry network. The logo appears in the website footer. The relationship appears to be a network/membership affiliation providing access to a broader logistics network for cooperation and referrals.
• Hamburg LogistikminorOthersHamburg Logistik is a Hamburg-based logistics industry association or network. The logo appears in the website footer. The relationship appears to be membership/network affiliation within the Hamburg logistics community.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Dachser SE: German-headquartered global logistics provider with strong road freight and European logistics focus — comparable domestic competitor with overlapping road freight capabilities but broader contract logistics scale; competed with in DACH road freight segment.
• DHL Global Forwarding: German-based global air and ocean freight forwarder (Deutsche Post DHL Group division) with comprehensive multi-modal services plus customs — a much larger incumbent competitor sharing Bremen/Hamburg/FRA presence and competing for the same mid-market customers.
• CEVA Logistics: Global supply chain management company (CMA CGM subsidiary) offering ocean, air, road, and rail forwarding plus contract logistics — broader incumbent with full multi-modal service portfolio that competes with K+L across Europe-Asia trade lanes.
• DB Schenker: German-headquartered global logistics provider (rail, road, air, ocean freight forwarding under DB Group) with European network overlap and Bremen operation — broad incumbent across all the same modes and service categories as K+L.
• Kuehne+Nagel International AG: Swiss-headquartered global logistics leader (#1 sea freight and #2 air freight forwarder worldwide) offering the same services as K+L but at vastly larger scale with proprietary digital platforms (KN FreightNet, myKN) — the dominant incumbent against whom mid-sized German forwarders compete for global accounts.
• DSV A/S: Danish-headquartered global freight forwarding giant (#3 globally by market share) with full road, air, sea, and customs services — growing through aggressive acquisition, DSV competes directly for mid-market European accounts and applies pricing pressure on mid-sized German forwarders.

Direct peers

• Hellmann Worldwide Logistics: Osnabrück-headquartered family-owned German freight forwarder with comparable multi-modal offering (ocean, air, road, rail) plus customs and contract logistics — the closest analogue in terms of Mittelstand positioning, service breadth, and target SME/mid-market accounts.
• Logwin AG: Luxembourg-headquartered mid-sized European forwarder offering air, sea, and road freight forwarding — closer scale analog to K+L and direct competitor for European mid-market importers/exporters in international freight forwarding.
• Röhlig Logistics: Bremen-based family-owned German forwarder specializing in air and ocean freight forwarding with customs and project logistics — direct German regional competitor with similar scale, ownership profile, and trade-lane focus.

Emerging players

• Flexport: San Francisco-based digitally-native freight forwarder offering ocean and air freight forwarding with proprietary software platform — represents the technological disruption to traditional German Mittelstand forwarders like K+L, particularly with mid-market clients seeking transparent pricing and self-service tools.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/kopfluebben
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/kopf-luebben
• Instagraminstagram.com/kopf_und_luebben

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Head & Lubben