22.10.2026

LE­BUHN & PUCH­TA has ad­vi­sed the Bleck­mann Group on its ent­ry in­to the Ger­man lo­gi­stics mar­ket. Bleck­mann ac­qui­red EMP Mer­chan­di­sing Han­dels­ge­sell­schaft mbH’s en­ti­re lo­gi­stics di­vi­si­on, com­pri­sing a lo­gi­stics cent­re in Lin­gen co­ve­ring ap­pro­xi­m­ate­ly 30,000 squa­re me­t­res of ope­ra­tio­nal space and the around 140 em­ployees ba­sed the­re.

The ac­qui­si­ti­on of the lo­gi­stics cent­re forms part of a tran­sac­tion bet­ween Bleck­mann and EMP, as well as the War­ner Mu­sic Group and the UK-ba­sed why­now Group. Con­cur­rent wi­th Bleckmann’s ac­qui­si­ti­on of the lo­gi­stics cent­re from EMP, the War­ner Mu­sic Group sold all its shares in EMP to the why­now Group. The tran­sac­tion was struc­tu­ral­ly and le­gal­ly com­plex due to the com­bi­na­ti­on of as­set and share deals, con­trac­tu­al in­ter­de­pen­den­ci­es, the si­mul­ta­neous com­ple­ti­on of the tran­sac­tion, and the va­rious par­ties in­vol­ved on bo­th the seller’s and buy­ers’ si­des.

As part of a part­ner­ship wi­th why­now, in­iti­al­ly set for 10 ye­ars, Bleck­mann will ta­ke over the ope­ra­ti­on of the lo­gi­stics cent­re. The high­ly au­to­ma­ted site fea­tures an Au­to­Sto­re sys­tem wi­th mo­re than 75,000 bins and 180 ro­bots and other mo­dern tech­no­lo­gy, such as a shut­tle sys­tem wi­th 175,000 sto­rage po­si­ti­ons and 110 shut­tle ro­bots.

“The deal wi­th why­now is a stra­te­gic mo­ve de­si­gned to en­su­re that it would ea­si­ly fall wi­thin the scope of the Nor­t­hern Ne­t­her­lands clus­ter. Wi­th this mo­ve, we are tap­ping in­to a new mar­ket, as it al­so al­lows us to test this mar­ket and marks our first fo­ray in­to the fa­shion and mer­chan­di­se sec­tors in Ger­ma­ny,” says Tom Wi­j­lens, COO at Bleck­mann.

LE­BUHN & PUCH­TA pro­vi­ded Bleck­mann wi­th com­pre­hen­si­ve le­gal ad­vice on the tran­sac­tion and the con­clu­si­on of the long-term lo­gi­stics ser­vices agree­ment. De­spi­te the transaction’s con­sidera­ble com­ple­xi­ty, the le­gal sup­port was hand­led by a mul­ti­di­sci­pli­na­ry team of on­ly fi­ve mem­bers that com­bi­ned the ex­per­ti­se across the re­le­vant are­as of law. The LE­BUHN & PUCH­TA team con­sis­ted of Hen­drik­je Herr­mann, LL.M. (Sala­ry Part­ner, lead, Trans­port & Lo­gi­stics, Com­mer­cial), Dr Ro­bi Chat­topad­hyay (Sala­ry Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Re­al Es­tate, Fi­nan­ce), Dr Dirk Blö­mer (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Em­ploy­ment Law), Dr Ni­co­las Schün­gel (Coun­sel, Em­ploy­ment Law, Com­mer­cial), and Dr Mar­cel Pe­ters (Se­ni­or As­so­cia­te, Corporate/M&A).

The par­ties

Bleck­mann is a mar­ket lea­der in sup­p­ly chain ma­nage­ment (SCM) ser­vices for fa­shion and life­style brands. Foun­ded in 1862, Bleck­mann evol­ved from a trans­por­ta­ti­on com­pa­ny to a pro­vi­der of com­ple­te sup­p­ly chain so­lu­ti­ons wi­th spe­ci­fic ex­per­ti­se in e-ful­film­ent. From its strong ba­se in Eu­ro­pe, the com­pa­ny ex­pan­ded in­to the US and Asia, en­ab­ling Bleck­mann to ser­ve cli­ents around the world. Wi­th its around 7,000 team mem­bers Bleck­mann ge­ne­ra­ted re­ve­nue of around 730 mil­li­on eu­ros in 2025.

why­now is an en­ter­tain­ment com­pa­ny foun­ded in Lon­don in 2019 by Ga­bri­el Jag­ger, which of­fers ar­tists a one stop so­lu­ti­on across mer­chan­di­sing, con­tent pro­duc­tion and au­di­ence ma­nage­ment.

EMP Mer­chan­di­sing was foun­ded in 1986 and, un­der the um­brel­la of War­ner Mu­sic Group – one of the world’s th­ree lar­gest mu­sic com­pa­nies – has be­co­me one of Europe’s lea­ding re­tail­ers of rock and pop cul­tu­re mer­chan­di­se. The com­pa­ny ser­ves mo­re than 10 mil­li­on cli­ents.