AntwerpXL’s best newcomer 2022: DGA Shipping

The re-brand

‘It’s been a very special 8 months since I joined DGA Shipping and lots has happened,’ explains Verstraeten. Firstly, DGA Shipping, formerly known as De Grave-Antverpia, had a major re-brand which they announced at the 2022 AntwerpXL event in October. ‘In my first 100 days, I asked our business relations what they felt when they looked at our logo and the comparison was often made to a military object. We realised that in today’s world, this did not bring us any extra value.’ Verstraeten knew they needed an update and chose a new logo, new bright green and blue colours and a new tagline. ‘Our new tagline is ‘next generation logistics’, we respect the great history and tradition of this company but at the same time think in all that we do carefully on how we can prepare it for the next generation,’ explains Verstraeten.

‘This new branding and new office has been a part of our journey,’ says Verstraeten. The key driver was that DGA Shipping wanted to be closer to water which is the main driver for their products and service. ‘We’ve moved from a traditional office to a modern and bright one looking over the docks. We notice that this creates a motivational boost for our teams.’ Alongside this, DGA  has new company values which focus on customer satisfaction, digitalisation, sustainability and people. ‘For us, it cannot be stressed enough that customer satisfaction is and will always be the foundation of DGA Shipping and other drivers such as digitalisation will help DGA to become more efficient when it comes to processes and transport management,’ explains Verstraeten, ‘Every value driver faces its own challenges.’

Best newcomer

DGA Shipping had to think about where they would reveal their new branding. ‘There hadn’t been many events due to Covid and AXL was the first one we wanted to be at. So, we invested into our stand and chose it to be the event we came out at!,’ boasted Verstraeten. For this, DGA won best newcomer for exhibiting for the first time at the 2022 AntwerpXL event in Antwerp.

‘The journey to this point has been a good one. Last year was a great year and we are expecting a more challenging one this year, but AXL gave DGA Shipping the ideal location and environment to bring our rebrand too – we loved it.’

What’s next?

As indicated above, the next step in the journey is digitalisation for the company’s internal processes. ‘We need to start using our data in a smarter way and think on how to use this data to become more efficient.’ DGA Shipping are recruiting for the younger generation to come onboard and join this transformation. ‘They are quick adaptors to the new way of doing things,’ says Verstraeten.

‘Our team today is a very experienced generation of people, they are extremely valuable and world champions in what they do but, we have to think about what is going to happen going forward,’ stresses Verstraeten. As a half-glass-full person, Verstraeten is not worried but sees this as a daily challenge. In February, DGA are welcoming students from the local university KDG into the workplace on a job shadowing scheme. ‘It’s a great way to find talent, as the demand is higher than the supply, we must go out to find them, they won’t come to us.’

DGA Shipping will be exhibiting at AntwerpXL in November 2023.