The establishment of Panalpina holding company in May 1954 triggered a phase of international expansion that has made Panalpina one of the world's leading transport and logistics groups. Today, it operates 480 offices in 75 countries with some 12,300 employees.
In 1954 several companies and branches belonging to Panalpina's predecessor, the former Schweizerische Reederei AG (SRAG) were grouped together under the Panalpina Holding umbrella. Panalpina's roots go back, however, to the 19th century, when the forwarding company Hans Im Obersteg was founded in Basel (now Panalpina Switzerland).

SRAG, combining Rhine navigation and transport, has been gradually building up the Group's international forwarding organization: 1939 saw the acquisition of Marchesi Lombard S.p.A. in Milan and of the London-based Comptons Ltd, while in 1947 Rohner, Gehrig & Co. Inc., New York, with branches in Canada, was bought. In 1954 Panalpina Holding was founded in Basel, grouping together all the companies associated with SRAG. The Group grew steadily and opened more of its own offices on all continents. To the present day, however, the Panalpina Group has retained close links with Basel, where its Corporate Head office is domiciled.

Nowadays, there are complex logistics chains to be managed and production lines to be supplied. The globalized economy would never have come about without the logistics companies and their data communication systems. The first transatlantic crossing by a container vessel from the USA to Europe (Sea-
Land’s “MS Fairland”) was just as much a milestone as the IT revolution in the early 1980s and the launch of the Internet during the 1990s.

In the IT field, Panalpina invested considerable sums back in the 1970s - and where it continues to do so. Panalpina was involved from the outset in developing the GF-X electronic platform used by the international airfreight industry.

The key milestones in Panalpina's development are linked primarily to the name of the current Chairman, Gerhard Fischer. It was thanks to his initiative that Panalpina withdrew from European land transport in the late 1980s and placed its strategic focus on intercontinental airfreight and oceanfreight services. This strategy allowed us to become one of the top in the industry worldwide”, says Bruno Sidler, who took over from Gerhard Fischer as CEO in 1998.