Ex-DFDS Logistics Chief Takes Helm at Blue Logistics as IPO Clock Ticks

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Martin Gade Gregersen, the former Executive Board member who built N&K Spedition into a billion-krone refrigerated transport leader before its sale to DFDS, will become Group CEO of Blue Logistics Group on 1 October 2026, steering the Copenhagen-based freight consolidator toward a planned stock exchange listing in 2030.

The appointment ends a six-month search for permanent leadership after Mikkel Fruergaard stepped down as CEO in January 2026. Mikkel Berg Kærsgaard, the company’s CFO, had held the interim chief executive role while the board pursued what Chairman Morten Mathiesen described as a “rare” combination of strategic commercial acumen and entrepreneurial partnership experience.

Gregersen’s track record in scaling partner-driven logistics businesses is well established in Nordic freight circles. From his entry into management at N&K Spedition in 2002 through its acquisition by DFDS in 2021, he multiplied turnover across nearly two decades, with the latter phase of growth occurring under the Dutch HSF Group. That trajectory made N&K Spedition the leading refrigerated transport player in Denmark and the broader Nordic region.

After leaving DFDS earlier this year, Gregersen said the move to Blue Logistics represented a return to fundamentals. “I want to get back to my roots,” he said in a statement. “Where I, together with partners and customers, build, develop and create solutions that make a real difference.”

His mandate is clear: strengthen international development, streamline the integration of new acquisitions, and position the group in markets outside Denmark ahead of its IPO target.

Blue Logistics Group, founded in January 2024, has pursued an aggressive buy-and-build strategy that has seen it acquire or establish a new subsidiary roughly every six weeks. The group now counts more than 30 subsidiaries, over 100 partners, and more than 600 employees across operations in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

Financial disclosures paint a picture of rapid scaling. The group’s first annual report, covering the 18 months from inception through 30 June 2025, showed revenue of DKK 1.0 billion and EBITDA of DKK 30 million. Using its preferred “June revenue x 12” metric, the company reported an annualized run rate of DKK 1.056 billion at the end of that period. By the 2025/26 financial year, that figure had climbed to DKK 2.1 billion. The stated IPO ambition requires minimum turnover of DKK 5 billion by 2030.

The group has not been shy about its expansion playbook. In late 2024 it acquired Ocean Shipping & Logistics to enter air and sea freight, followed by the Danish air and sea operations of Rhenus Logistics in early 2025. Further moves into Norway, Sweden, China, and the Middle East have followed, including the November 2025 establishment of Blue ME Logistics LLC in Dubai.

A notable element of Gregersen’s pitch to the board centered on technology. Blue Logistics Group is investing in scalable IT platforms and artificial intelligence integration, an area where Gregersen believes the group’s relatively young corporate structure offers an advantage over legacy operators retrofitting AI onto older systems.

“Blue Logistics is partner-driven and has the advantage of being able to incorporate AI from the start,” Gregersen said. “The partners ensure us the necessary customer focus and responsibility, and AI gives us some skills that we can offer our new and existing customers in addition to everything else.”

Gregersen will be joined by his long-time Executive Assistant, Hua Zhang, with whom he has worked for several years. The two will form the executive board alongside CFO Mikkel Berg Kærsgaard.

Mathiesen, the chairman, framed the appointment as a strategic fit for a company that must now balance entrepreneurial culture with the governance demands of a future listed entity. “Martin possesses a rare ability to combine the strategic commercial mindset needed in a listed company with the personal approach required in an entrepreneurial partner-based company,” Mathiesen said.

The question now is whether Gregersen can replicate his N&K Spedition growth trajectory across a far more fragmented, multi-modal, and geographically dispersed portfolio, and do so within a four-year window.