Looking back on a long and very successful career, Kurt K. Larsen’s first comment is “yes, it really is quite unbelievable, and, you know, it might never have happened, if the chips hadn’t fallen exactly right”.
Kurt K. Larsen is referring to the acquisition and successful integration of Samson Transport in 1997, which was DSV’s first leap into the international freight forwarding world and the foundation for all further acquisitions.
“But there never was a master plan, Leif [Tullberg, co-founder of DSV] and I just had this ability to spot an opportunity, a stepping stone, which led us on to the next and then the next”, Kurt emphasises.
Entangled with DSV from the beginning
In 1969, Kurt helped start up a small haulier business for the Frederiksen family: Rich. Frederiksen. In 1976, the company was split into a domestic and an international division and sold off to haulier Børge Jakobsen and Borup Autotransport, respectively.
The subcontracted hauliers previously employed in the domestic division of Rich. Frederiksen now had nowhere to go. They decided to go into business for themselves and were looking for a business manager. They asked Kurt, but he respectfully declined, because he had very limited experience with domestic transport of ‘dirt and gravel’.
While he’d been employed with K&E Spedition (1967-1969), however, he’d developed his skills within a new business area, full and part load, and this is where the potential really was, Kurt felt. So, he accepted a managing role in Borup Autotransport instead.
Meanwhile, “De Sammensluttede Vognmænd af 13-7-1976 A/S” (The Consolidated Hauliers) was founded with Leif Tullberg as their business manager. In the beginning, all DSV’s activities were managed from the Tullberg family’s kitchen.
