Kuehne + Nagel increases its market share this year

Wednesday, 03 March 2010

FORWARDING and logistics company Kuehne + Nagel (KN) expects to continue winning market share this year after strengthening its grip on freight markets during 2009.

The company said unprecedented declines in turnover and volumes in the first half of 2009 eased in the second half when logistics demand started to recover. But despite the tough trading conditions the integrator claimed to have made market share gains in all business fields by investing in sales and industry specific solutions.

It announced net earnings of US$431m in 2009, a year-on-year decline of more than 20%.

In 2009, the company saw turnover decrease by 19.4% to $16.26bn, with gross profit down Ocean volumes fell 4.6% in 2009, although the operational result decreased by almost 18%.

Sea freight remained the group's largest earner, representing 42% of KN's turnover. The company now controls just under 2% of the container sea freight market.

In road and rail logistics, KN compensated for falling European road transport volumes by making full-truckload and less-than-truckload market share gains.

EBITDA margin increased from 0.8% to 2.1% for the business unit and the operational result improved by 126.1%, boosted by the 2009 acquisition of the French Alloin Group.

Karl Gernandt, executive vice president, said: “The good performance in the crisis year of 2009 was due to its operational strengths and the timely and consistent execution of its strict cost management and commitment to market share expansion.”

“Thus, we were able to considerably strengthen our global market position. In addition, we took advantage of the crisis to further improve organisational and operational efficiencies.”