Contract Logistics performed strongly for Kuehne + Nagel in the first nine months of 2013 with EBIT rising 59 per cent to CHF70m (£47.9m) while net turnover was up 4.3 per cent.
The continuous implementation of the master location plan and portfolio adjustments as well as the concentration on end-to-end-logistics solutions for internationally operating customer groups resulted in the third quarter in an EBIT increase of 31.6 per cent compared to the previous year.
The group made special efforts to improve the profit margin in its seafreight business. Despite a weak volume growth, the EBIT-to-gross profit margin was increased to 31.4 per cent in the third quarter.
Compared to the first nine months of the previous year, results on EBIT level were stagnating mainly due to a slowdown in the project business. While market shares were gained in the transatlantic and transpacific trade lanes, Kuehne + Nagel did not participate in the intensive competition on the Asia-Europe traffic. As a result of this decision, the company increased container volumes by 2.3 per cent in the first three quarters.
In airfreight market, Kuehne + Nagel increased overall tonnage by 3.3 per cent in the first nine months. Overall EBIT improved by 6.4 per cent to CHF166m (£113.6m).
Overall, Kuehne + Nagel saw EBIT rise six per cent in the first nine months to CHF561m (£384m) on sales up 1.5 per cent to CHF 15.7 billion (£1.02bn)
CEO Detlef Trefzger said: “We concentrate on profitable growth and are on good track to reach our goals. In seafreight, our most important business unit, we focused on the quality of business instead of volume growth by all means. In a demanding market environment we thus reached our profitability target in seafreight. Strict cost management will remain in place for the whole company and at the same time we will also continue to enhance the spectrum of solutions and the service quality for our customers.”
