about us >> history of our company

As old as the origin of our company is the book of the Centennial of Uruguay; published exactly in 1925, when complied 100 years of the independence of our country. Towards the year 1920 "The House Van Bokkelen y Rohr" started their activities in Montevideo, formed by the associates Mr. Rohr and Mr. Van Bokkelen who established their premises and offices in the street Colon 1474 to 1478 in the capital of the country.

The head office was established in Buenos Aires in the year 1914 by Mr. L. Van Bokkelen, who by the following year opened its first branch office in the city of New York in 361 of Washington Street. The three branches were dedicated to Shipping Agency, Imports, Exports and Representations. Van Bokkelen and Rohr were by then shipping agents of the "American Republic Line" and they represented several "Houses/companies" of the United States, among which the most important were "Quakers Oats Company" and "H. J. Heinz Company".

In addition they specialized in the business of the food products, being able by then to transfer from Mendoza (Argentina) to New York and Chicago in record time, any product, especially fruit and fauna, in superb conditions. According to the season of the year, Mr. Van Bokkelen and Mr. Rohr export and import natural food products of the country, or elaborated in the large plants in the U.S. The fruit and the fauna exported to New York arrives fresh thanks to the cold store cameras existing in Buenos Aires. These procedures of work of the Van Bokkelen and Rohr house, were the ones that have accredited the products they represent both abroad and in the Uruguayan market.

The variety of the commercial turn of this House and their relations with important institutions and industrial companies of North America, have transformed them into an agency of vast projections among the neighboring regions, to favour the exchange of manufactured products and food of extensive consumption from among these regions and the powerful North nation. In Uruguay, the House Van Bokkelen and Rohr had many customers distributed within the main populations, what permitted them to maintain an intense commercial activity, being the traded articles of high quality and of easy sale due their extraordinary demand.

The premises of the Colon street always had a vast stock of food products to attend any demand of the clients in Montevideo and the interior of the country. From 1951 the imports freedom in Uruguay has started, and the "Introductory Houses", as they were called at that time, finished and provoked the end of the exclusiveness to import any type of product. In that year and by common consent, Mr. Van Bokkelen and Mr. Rohr separated their commercial interests, developing then from 1st May 1951 the Shipping Agency - Agencia Marítima Ernesto J. Rohr S.A., presided in its board of directors by Mr. Ernesto Juan Rohr.

Therefore the identity of our company was born, as it is known presently, attending ships of the most important owners all over the world. Nowadays, ROHR SHIPPING & LOGISTICS, directed by Mr. Jimmy Rohr, the third generation at work, is a clear example of the opening and globalization of the company; integrating an excellent group of companies entirely dedicated to facilitate the commerce related to land, air, and maritime transportation, offering services that include transportation and logistics, chartering and ships agency for containers, general cargo, bulk, livestock, wood and derivates, and project cargoes, in all the ports of the country, including Montevideo, Nueva Palmira, Fray Bentos, Paysandú, Punta del Este and José Ignacio Terminal SBM. Furthermore, the chartering of airplanes up to 150 tons of capacity for any type of merchandise that require a fast transportation; logistic engineering, dismantling, transportation and assembling of industrial plants, storage in port warehouses and outside the port area, besides the Free Zones, working as distribution hub center for the region and the world. Conscious to always promote excellence in the attention to our local and abroad clients, all our companies have been certificated under the norm ISO 9001:2000 by the SGS December 4, 2003.