John Gilbert has taken over as board member for DHL Supply Chain at Deutsche Post DHL.
He takes over from Bruce Edwards who is retiring from the business. Edwards will serve as an advisor until September.
Gilbert came to Deutsche Post DHL in 2005, when the former Exel plc was acquired by Deutsche Post AG. He joined Exel in 1994.
In October 2008 he took over responsibility for DHL’s supply chain business in the Americas as regional CEO.
In 2013, he also assumed the role as CEO and chairman of Williams Lea, Deutsche Post DHL’s corporate information solutions unit.
Group CEO Frank Appel said: “We are delighted to welcome John Gilbert as new member of the group’s board of management. With his extensive experience and his superior track record of building and leading a significant supply chain business in one of the biggest and most challenging markets of the world, he is the right man to further develop our global supply chain division.”
Bruce Edwards was appointed to Deutsche Post DHL’s management board in 2008, after having served as chief executive officer DHL Supply Chain Americas/Asia Pacific of the Group since 2005.
*Operating profit rose 5.3 per cent at DHL Supply Chain last year despite the fact that sales were marginally down at €14.billion.
Contract wins reached a record €1.5bn last year. EBIT rose 5.3 per cent to €441m.
The fall in revenue was mainly a result of negative exchange-rate effects and the impact of the disposal of three non-core subsidiaries, said parent Deutsche Post DHL in its annual results.
Ignoring those effects, sales rose by some six per cent (€800m) fuelled primarily by strong growth in the Asia-Pacific region as well as in the life sciences & healthcare, automotive, consumer and technology sectors.
EBIT in the Express division rose two per cent to€1.1bn while revenue was down marginallyto €12.7bn. However, revenue in 2012 included the divested domestic express businesses in Australia, New Zealand and Romania.
Business was tougher in the Global Forwarding, Freight division where EBIT fell to €483m from €514m in 2012. Revenue was down 5.3 per cent to €14.8bn.
Volume and revenues in air freight fell below the previous year’s level primarily because of weakened demand from several large customers in the technology and engineering & manufacturing sectors, the group said.
“Ocean freight volume and revenues also decreased. The main reason for this development was lower demand in the Americas and Europe regions. In contrast, demand rose on intra-Asian and North-South routes. A small rise in revenues generated by overland transport resulted largely from a slight business improvement in Germany, Eastern Europe, the Benelux countries and France.”
The German domestic mail business saw revenue rise by 3.4 per cent to €14.5bn while operating earnings climbed by 17 per cent to reach €1.2bn. The group said this was down to a rise in postal rates and growth in parcel traffic.
Overall, group revenue was down 0.8 per cent at €55.1bn whiles EBIT was up slightly at €2.86bn.
“We took a significant step forward in 2013. We built upon our existing strengths, affirmed our strong market position and significantly improved the company in all aspects of our Strategy 2015,” said group CEO Frank Appel.
“We will nevertheless continue to work hard to reach our 2015 goals given the continued sluggish global economic environment.”
The group is now forecasting EBIT of €2.9bn to €3.1bn for 2014. For 2015 it expects EBIT to be between €3.35bn and €3.55bn.
