Introduction of BREB

In 1951 the Messers Bischoff and Eilemann founded the company „Bremer Reederei Eilemann & Bischoff GmbH“.

Shortly thereafter, the companions already got different ways, but the company in-operatively remained.

In 1996, the company Bremer Reederei Eilemann & Bischoff GmbH was reactivated based on an existing contract for the Swedish StoraEnso Group. The fortunate event, which led to this development, was the closing down of StoraEnso´s pre-vious Shipping Line due to internal problems. The Bischoff Management could successfully integrate the Ex-Managing Director of the said Shipping Line with special know how and contacts, which were essential for this Shipping Con-tract with leading forest concern StoraEnso.

The only thing missing were suitable vessels, which were pro-vided instantly by Briese Schiffahrt with M/V Dollart and M/V Frigga and company Lohmann from Haren with M/V Santa Maria, with sizes between 3.500 and 3.900 tdw and equipped with two powerful deck cranes. Approximately 500.000 tons of forestry products were transported with these vessels.

In the course of the bankruptcy of the Bischoff-Group in 1999 the company shares of Bremer Reederei Eilemann & Bischoff GmbH completely passed on to Briese Schiffahrt.

Due to said bankruptcy of the Bischoff-Group and chang-ing company structures the name was changed to the more neutral version „Bremer Reederei E & B“ in 2000. In the same year, Arne Ehlers who worked on board multiple Briese ves-sels as Nautical Officer and Captain (such as M/V Amke, M/V Star, M/V Sun Bird/Frigga, M/V Industrial Alliance and M/V Bremer Forest) and later on as an assistant in the Inspection department, was dispatched to Bremen.

M/V Frigga and M/V Santa Maria, both built in the 80’s, were soon replaced by newly built ships. Initially, the BREB S TORAEnso Group was considering to invest into two new-buildings of Stocznia Polnocna from Gdynia. But many years the core fleet was consisting of the three Briese vessels M/V Bremer Timber (Randzel, 4.900 tdw), M/V Bremer Forest and its sister vessel M/V Dollart (Komarno-types with 3.200 tdw).

These vessels operated in the so called Swedish „Ostkust-systemet“ - a kind of liner service between the Swedish East Coast with its main ports Norrsundet and Gävle as well as Brake and Zeebrugge at the Continent and Chatham, Blyth and Swansea in the UK.

The southbound transports of wood pulp / cellulose and timber were combined with northbound transports for raw material supplies for the forestry product concern (such as kaolin from Fowey, Cornwall, loose logs from Hamburg, Finkenwerder and the Baltic). BREB’s preference for geared singledeckers which can be used on both, the north- and the southbound transports for loading and discharging emerged from this era and this traffic. 

The Briese Saimaa-max vessels M/V Flinthörn and M/V Scharhörn were also operated for STORA. Both were mainly transporting loose logs in shuttle service between the Bal-tic ports of Klaipeda, Ventspils, Riga, Salaskriva and Gruvön at the Lake Vänern. These vessels were so successful in the ‘Vänern-traffic’ that local ship owners soon decided to rec-reate this type of vessels but with the maximum measure-ments allowing them to pass the Vänern locks. With this ad-vantage, M/V Flinthörn and M/V Scharhörn were pushed out of the ‘Vänern-traffic’ shortly thereafter.

For many years, M/V Bremer Reeder, was operating in the North Sea and Baltic. This vessel was bought together with two sister vessels as a second-hand vessel from the Nether-lands by Briese Schiffahrt. With the ability to carry 5.000cbm of kiln-dried timber with its 3.500 tdw, it was the ideal ves-sel for the carriage of sawn timber. In 2003, BREB acquired its first own vessel M/V Bremer Victoria (ex M/V Ägir). With 2.350 tdw it was used for the transport of timber from Swe-den to smaller Naabsa-ports in Northern France, England and Scotland. Once the Tour de France directly passed the vessel in the French port of Le League and M/V Bremer Vic-toria was visible in worldwide TV. 2008 BREB purchased its first newbuilding: the 4.100 tdw carrying M/V Bremer Johanna, which was awarded with the German environmental „Blue Angel“ label. Many different vessels of sizes between 2.300 and 9.000 tdw and many dif-ferent vessels of the Briese Group, inter alia M/V Bremer Saturn, M/V Hanoi, M/V Saxum and M/V Störtebeker were employed. 

The headquarters of BREB is situated in Cuxhaven since 2014 and further branch offices in Bremen, Sassnitz and Zeebrügge (BREB Belgium) were opened. In 2015, the cor-porate name was changed to BREB GmbH & Co. KG.

BREB is a classical shipping company with its own vessels, its own chartering and its own range of agency and port ser-vices. Approximately 70% of their vessels are sailing under the German flag. The vessels are operating in liner services around Europe and are managed by their own Chartering department.

BREB is operating two liner services like system traffics to Northern Africa. Up to five ships with weekly departures are serving ports in the Maghreb countries out of the Adriatic Sea - the main export port for this is the Slovenian Koper,

where BREB is the market leader of the shipping companies with conventional-line services.

The liner services for the Northern European Continent are mainly calling the ports of Wismar, Brake and Antwerp on a monthly basis. Both liner services are transporting wood and steel products as main cargoes - in northbound direc-tions into the Adriatic or the North Sea mainly bulk cargoes are transported.

Since Alpha Ventus, BREB is active in the offshore-wind-business (seagoing transport, port logistics, and agency services). The offshore track-record features multiple pro-jects of port agencies, such as cable ships, installation ships, survey- and OSVs, CTVs, special vessels for Grouting and noise protection, guard vessels, AHTs, trailing suction hop-per dredgers, towed convoys, heavy lift vessels, port agen-cies in Bremen, Bremerhaven, Cuxhaven and Stade as well as vessel coordinators for Alpha Ventus, general agency for EON Amrumbank West in Cuxhaven, subagent for Siemens in Cuxhaven for the construction and operation of trans-former platforms, agency for Blue Water in Bremerhaven and Sassnitz for offshore-wind, -oil and -gas projects as well as CTV handling and crewchanges by helicopter.

In this context, BREB also offers package solutions contain-ing seatransport, transport insurance, handling logistics, port agencies and customs clearance.

On December 27th 2016, BREB and Blue Water Shipping founded the joint-venture Blue Water BREB GmbH which is situated in Cuxhaven as well. Shareholders of equal parts of 50% are the Danish Blue Water Shipping and BREB GmbH & Co. KG. Since beginning of 2017, Blue Water BREB is han-dling On-shore wind turbine components for VESTAS - ap-proximately 1.500 parts per year - which are often trans-ported by Briese vessels from Turkey or Italy.