Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, a global logistics provider with over 12,000 employees in 61 countries, is reshaping the future of logistics through innovation, digitalization, and sustainability. As part of its Strategic Roadmap 2030, Hellmann launched the Hellmann Innovation Hub (HIH) in late 2023 to unify and accelerate innovation efforts across the organization.

“We strongly believe in ecosystem instead of egosystem – there is no better way to drive innovation and digitalization than to collaborate and interact with like-minded pioneers in the industry,” says Stefan Borggreve, Chief Digital Officer and Board Member of Hellmann. “To further accelerate in our digitalization, sustainability, and innovation efforts, we launched the Hellmann Innovation Hub to systematically collaborate with startups and tech players following a structured innovation methodology.”

This ecosystem-first mindset is reflected in Hellmann’s strategic partnerships with Digital Hub Logistics Hamburg, Maschinenraum, and Rethink Ventures—each playing a vital role in connecting Hellmann to emerging technologies, industry trends, and startup networks.

The Challenge

Before the Innovation Hub, Hellmann’s innovation efforts were fragmented across regions and functions. Local teams developed promising solutions, but without a global framework, scaling was difficult and knowledge from executed pilots often remained siloed.

Innovation was happening—but not always in a way that could be measured, scaled, or sustained. Isolated scouting for partners, limited visibility on available solutions or initiatives, and lack of structured tooling made it hard to prioritize our efforts, track progress, and retain learnings across the organization. We needed transparency, speed, and the ability to steer our innovation agenda globally while empowering local execution.

Dominik Schindler, Head of Innovation

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The Solution

Hellmann’s Innovation Hub was designed to deliver speed and impact—the two pillars of its innovation strategy. The team believes in combining the best of venture clienting and venture networking to address today’s business needs while exploring tomorrow’s opportunities.

To support this, Hellmann implemented a centralized innovation platform that enables two core use cases:

Use Case 1: Employee-Facing Engagement Platform‍

This module democratizes innovation across Hellmann. It enables all employees to explore strategic innovation search fields, submit ideas, and engage in challenges.

“Innovation is a people business,” says Dominik. “To unlock its full potential, we need to evangelize it across the organization. Infotainment helps us do that—making innovation engaging, inspiring, and accessible.”

Use Case 2: Innovation Portfolio Management

This module allows Hellmann to manage its innovation portfolio with structure and clarity. It supports the entire innovation lifecycle—from identifying use cases and piloting solutions to scaling and productizing them—while enabling structured partner scouting and impact tracking.

“We wanted to make our innovation efforts—whether in projects or ecosystem building—measurable. This is about building a culture of accountability and learning and ensuring from an early stage on that every initiative interlocks with our strategy and delivers measurable business value.

Michel Heck, Innovation Lead

To enable these use cases, Hellmann selected Bloomflow as its innovation platform partner building Hellmann’s digital backbone of its innovation engine efforts – not just for tooling, but for enabling collaboration, transparency, and governance. The decision was based on its ability to reflect Hellmann’s processes, support fast onboarding, and scale with the organization’s evolving needs.

Hellmann selected Bloomflow as its innovation platform partner with the decision being mainly driven by three key factors:

• Customizability: Bloomflow offered the flexibility to tailor the platform to Hellmann’s specific innovation processes, organizational structure, and strategic goals—without compromising usability.
• Fast Time-to-Value: The platform was implemented and went live in less than one month, allowing Hellmann to move quickly and onboard its innovation community and ecosystem without delay.
• Collaborative Partnership: From day one, Bloomflow demonstrated a strong commitment to joint development and continuous improvement. “Bloomflow’s adaptability, speed, and openness to co-create with us made it the right fit for our innovation journey.” emphasizes Michel.