THE former Northern Ireland base of the German logistics group DB Schenker has been put up for sale just 12 months after the business was acquired by the Danish transport giant DSV.
The freight hub in Mallusk, which had operated as Redhead International, has closed following last year’s acquisition.
DSV paid rail operator Deutsche Bahn €14.3 billion (£12.3bn) for DB Schenker on April 30 2025, creating a €41bn group with a workforce of 160,000.
At the time, the German logistics firm operated from a warehouse facility in Co Antrim, employing around 30 people.
The freight forwarding facility, located next to the Henderson Group’s headquarters, was originally established as a Northern Ireland base for Bradford-based Redhead International.
DB Schenker acquired Redhead International in 2016.
Redhead was acquired by DB Schenker in 2016. At the time, it had a fleet of 300 trucks operating from five UK depots, including Mallusk.
Following the latest acquisition, DSV has confirmed it has moved all operations into its main hub at Belfast Harbour.
The 35,000 sq ft industrial site in Mallusk is now up for sale, with offers being accepted in excess of £2.5 million.
DSV already has a significant presence in the Irish market.
Alongside its 16 sites in the Republic, it operates facilities at Foyle Port and Belfast International Airport, with its main northern hub located at Dargan Road in Belfast.
DSV’s Belfast Harbour facility.
DSV confirmed it has now moved to consolidate the DB Schenker operation into its Belfast Harbour hub.
“As part of the integration process, we are adjusting our business to the market situation,” said a spokesperson.
“This includes divestments of sites to avoid excess capacity.
“We remain committed to our business in Northern Ireland, where our footprint is now even stronger after the acquisition of Schenker.”
It’s understood around 30 people had been employed from the Mallusk site.
The company said while there were no forced redundancies, some employees had left through “natural churn or decided to work elsewhere”.
Last year’s acquisition of DB Schenker was perhaps the biggest milestone in the history of the DSV business since acquiring the DFDS Dan Transport Group in 2000.
That move brought it into the UK and Irish market, with DFDS Transport later rebranded as DSV.
Despite selling the ‘Dan Transport’ division of its group to DSV to focus on ferry operations, fellow Danish logistics group DFDS returned to the Irish transport market in a major way four years ago.
In September 2022 it acquired Dublin-based Lucey Transport Logistics and three months later paid £138 million for the Ballymena-based McBurney Transport.
At the time of the deal, DFDS employed 800 people across eight locations.