Swiss 3PL Kuehne + Nagel today reported double-digit increases in revenues and profits for the first quarter of 2025, after growing market share in its core ocean and air freight forwarding markets.
The firm saw group revenue rise 15%, to Sfr6.3bn ($7.66bn) year on year, while group Ebit was up 7% year on year, to Sfr402m, with US intermodal provider IMC Logistics, of which KN acquired 51% in November, consolidated into its books for the first time.
“A strong start in the new financial year,” commented chief executive Stefan Paul. “We increased our market share, gained new customers, and also improved profitability.”
KN’s sea freight division, which now includes IMC, saw volumes climb 3%, to hit the 1m teu mark, leading to a 40% year-on-year increase in revenue, to Sfr2.5bn, while Ebit increased 7%, to Sfr210m.
“Gross profit per teu was up significantly at 11% year on year – part of which is underlying market dynamics, with sequentially declining freight rates being passed through with a lag, a larger part of which was the contribution from the acquisition of IMC,” they wrote today.
KN’s air freight forwarding unit saw revenue grow 13% year on year, to Sfr1.8bn, with Ebit up 23%, to Sfr116m, after handling 514,000 tonnes in the quarter, 5% up.
“Excluding the automotive sector, the business unit gained market share across all industries, and particularly in semiconductors,” said KN.
“New cool corridors for healthcare were opened between Brussels and Chicago, as well as between Brussels and Singapore,” the company added.
Unsurprisingly, the road transport business continued to encounter difficulties, showing revenue up just 1% on the first quarter of 2024, at Sfr871m.
However, Ebit fell 37% year on year, to Sfr19m, with little prospect of improvement this year. KN said: “The general cargo business declined, compared with the previous year, due to weak demand in European markets.
“It is not expected that the market situation will change anytime soon,” it added.
Finally, KN’s contract logistics segment saw a 3% year-on-year increase in revenue, to Sfr1.2bn, while Ebit grew 4%, to reach Sfr57m, in a quarter during which it “opened new fulfilment centres for Sanofi in Turkey and for Rolls-Royce in Dubai”.
Mr Paul commented: “Despite the challenging global economic environment, the company achieved double-digit growth in net turnover. We remain well prepared and positioned to implement our strategic objectives.“
However, as Mr Pasetti noted in his analysis of the results today, it is now some 15 months since the company announced a global management restructure.
According to several sources, the project has not been met with huge enthusiasm among KN middle management in its regional offices.
Meanwhile, the company said today that, despite the strong first-quarter results, KN was unable to update its “recurring Ebit guidance” for the year – currently between Sfr1.5bn and Sfr1.75bn – “in light of the elevated and fluctuating level of market uncertainty, including global tariff developments”.
