Founder Kiyoshi Sagawa began a courier business in Kyoto, operating mainly between Kyoto and Osaka. "Hikyaku no Kokoro" (the spirit of express messenger) refers to the way he approached his work by thinking of the customer at all times, and doing everything he could on their behalf. That spirit has been passed on to successive generations and continues uninterrupted even today, half a century later.

In November 1965, Kiyoshi Sagawa established Sagawa Express Co., Ltd. The three-wheeled light trucks that were used around 1960 could only carry 350 kg, and so the company switched to small four-wheeled trucks with significantly greater cargo capacity.

The 1980s was a transitional period for the Group, as it responded to changes in business style by moving from its former domain of "transport business" to "comprehensive logistics company."
This was the golden era of designer brands in the Japanese fashion industry. It was in these circumstances that apparel manufacturers requested a way of transporting garments on hangers without needing to package them, resulting in the launch of "hanger transportation." This, together with other initiatives such as constructing storage warehouses, marked the company's first steps away from transportation only and towards the business of comprehensive logistics.

In the second half of the 1980s, daily volume handled exceeded 1 million items. It was computer networks that provided support for transportation and logistics services on such a vast scale. The cargo tracking system was launched on a national scale to make it possible to provide an answer to customers asking for the location of the item for which they were waiting.

As a result of the continuous implementation of safety-first initiatives, at the National Truck Drivers' Contest National Truck Driving Championships held in October 1989 by the Japan Trucking Association, the Sagawa Express team claimed overall victory for the first time, as well as being awarded the Prime Minister's Award. This result included the first-ever perfect score.

With the aim of reducing CO2 emissions, the Group bought two electric vehicles for the first time in 1992. After a process of trial and error, it began actively deploying natural gas vehicles in 1997. Since then it has steadily developed its activities, such as by presenting papers at natural gas vehicle research forums, and completing construction of one of the largest private-use natural gas filling stations in Japan. In 2006, it became the first private-sector company to exceed a cumulative total deployment of 3,000 natural gas vehicles.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Sagawa Express, which had been on a program of acquisitions, unified system development that had been scattered throughout the various regions.
Against this background, the revolutionary "HIDEN 98" shipping support system was developed to link senders with Sagawa Express online. "HIDEN 98" was subsequently developed into "HIDEN Assist," and "HIDEN BOY" before evolving into "e-DEN" in 2001, and ultimately becoming part of the "e-DEN Web" service.

In 1996, Sagawa Air Service (now SGH Global Japan) received permission from the Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism) for an air express package delivery service. It began its "Rocketbin" service (now "Hikyaku Air Express") offering next-day deliveries to remote locations and an easily understood system of regional zone-based tariffs.

Changing times brought a new focus on the mail-order and farm-fresh delivery businesses, with the launch of "Express package delivery service / Sagawa Express" (now "Hikyaku Express") aimed at fulfilling business-to-consumer (B2C) demand.

Customers had been demanding a chilled transport service for some time.
In 1999 Sagawa Express launched its "Hikyaku Cool (chilled) Express" service nationwide, and in the following year it began a "Hikyaku Cool (frozen) Express" service.

With demand for mail-order rising, "e-Collect" began in 2000 as an evolution of previous cash-on-delivery services, and included the ability to accept card payments. This attracted attention from all quarters, and rapidly become popular.

Sagawa Logistics Services (now Sagawa Global Logistics) formed a project team to obtain ISO14001 certification in February 2000. It began building a system to control the burden on the Earth's environment through such measures as cutting down on the amount of copier paper used, thorough separation of waste into different categories before disposal, and reducing waste water, subsequently gaining the Group's first ISO14001 certification.
Sagawa Express also introduced an environmental management system, and obtained ISO14001 certification in August 2001.
In accordance with this environmental management system, in March 2003 Sagawa Express implemented its first environmental policy, the "Sagawa Express Environmental Action."

In preparation for promoting the modal shift to railway, Sagawa Express began working with Japan Freight Railway Company to jointly develop express railway container cars. Following on from this, in 2002 it announced its intention to participate in the WWF "Climate Savers Program," becoming the first logistics industry company in the world to do so.
In 2004, the company began operation of the "Super Rail Cargo" service.

With the objective of speeding up decision-making in response to the ever-changing needs of customers, a pure holdings company, SG Holdings Co., Ltd., was established to incorporate the functions of formulating and administering management strategy.

The GOAL® (GO Advanced Logistics) Group-wide advanced logistics project team began operations. This team works on resolving not only the issues right in front of the customer's eyes, but also unearths and resolves potential problems, and proposes optimizations of logistics as a whole.

On December 13, 2017, the Group was listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The construction of X Frontier, which combines the large-scale transfer center of Sagawa Express with the logistics functions of the various Group companies, such as EC platforms, international logistics, large/specialized transport, is completed. This facility, which enables the organic blending of the functions of the various companies, is the flagship center of the Group, and has allowed it to further reinforce its structures for supporting the logistical aspects of management issues faced by customers.