Kuehne + Nagel has reported that its air freight division continued its “outstanding development” in 2018 and tonnage increased by 11 per cent to 1.7 million tonnes.
The freight forwarder said this result was significantly higher growth than the overall market and it added that industry-specific solutions for the pharma and healthcare and aviation industries played an important role in the growth.
Due to this strong growth in volume, consistent cost control and further productivity gains, EBIT grew by 13.4 per cent in air freight. At 29.5 per cent, Kuehne + Nagel said the conversion rate was once again at a high level for the industry.
Overall, Kuehne + Nagel said there was strong growth in all segments in 2018, and net profit was up 4.3 per cent to CHF 772 million. Net turnover was CHF 20,774 million in 2018, an increase of 11.7 per cent compared to the previous year and EBIT was CHF 987 million, CHF 50 million more than 2017, an improvement of 5.3 per cent.
Kuehne + Nagel International chief executive officer, Detlef Trefzger said: “2018 was another successful year for Kuehne + Nagel. Despite the market weakening at the end of the year, we succeeded in increasing our net turnover, gross profit and EBIT once again.
“The consistent implementation of our business strategy was decisive for this success. By introducing additional digital platforms, with new highly specialised solutions and targeted acquisitions, we reached important milestones last year and will continue to pursue our journey.
“Even though the growth momentum of the global economy slowed down at the end of 2018, we confirm our goals for the year ahead. In 2019, we aim at growing twice as fast as the market and improving our results further, complemented with selected acquisitions to our portfolio.”
