The book includes historical facts, but also personal memories of the actual executive chairman Christian Leysen.

This book tells the story of the Antwerp maritime en logistics company Ahlers. It was founded in 1909 by the Ahlers family from the German town Bremen. The firm started of as shipping agency, but later on developed activities like forwarding, ship management and contract logistics. The way in which two Ahlers generations and two Leysen generations have managed and built up their company is presented here against the background of the political, socio-economic and cultural life in Antwerp and beyond.

The first two chapters contain the history of the foundation of the firm till the end of the period in which André Leysen was leading it. The first chapter, on the ‘founding fathers’, took a lot of historical research in the company and family archives and in the existing literature on the broad context in which this story is situated. This task was undertaken by the academic trained historian Olivier Boehme, PhD. It are the years when the firm mainly remained an agency for foreign shipping companies in the port of Antwerp, but also providing services in forwarding and dipping its toe for the first time in ship owning.

Jan Bohets, who already wrote a biography on André Leysen and for many years has been a leading journalist on economic affairs for the Flemish high standing journal De Standaard, delivered the chapter on the years where André Leysen was in charge. André Leysen joined the firm in 1951 and succeeded in 1963 his father in law as general manager. He radically chose the way of expansion and reorientation of the main activities. At the time he sold the majority of the shares to the German holding company Stinnes, in 1970, he had made Ahlers the second ship owner of Belgium.

The third and last chapter is about the most recent period, beginning at the end of the 1980’ies when the actual CEO Christian Leysen took over. In 1994 he made Ahlers again a family owned company. In these years up till now it made use of the opportunities offered in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain and in the Far East. Since the facts and evolutions treated in this part of the book are still so recent and even actual, it was not yet fitted for a historical inquiry. Therefore it is told, as personal memoirs and visions, by Christian Leysen himself. He tries to explain how he coped with the challenges he faced and what he thinks is to be done in order to ensure the future of a company in an ever and rapidly changing world.

You will also find a lot of nice pictures about the present & the past of Ahlers.

The Dutch version is available now in Antwerp bookshops. You can also order a book at lieve.lowet(at)ahlers.com.
An English version of the book will follow later on.

100 Years of Ahlers in Antwerp. A Family Business in a World Port.  Authors: Christian Leysen & Olivier Boehme. Edited by the UPA Edtions (Antwerp). Price: € 19.95.