Pharma helps K+N airfreight outpace the market

Kuehne+Nagel beat 2014 airfreight market growth with a 5.3 per cent increase in volumes to 1.2m tonnes for the full year.
The Switzerland-based logistics giant’s air cargo increase is more than twice last year’s global market benchmark average of between three and four per cent.
K+N, the world’s second largest airfreight forwarder by tonnages, said that the key success factors in the business unit were “industry-specific airfreight products, which led to significant business wins in the pharmaceutical, automotive and industrial goods sectors”.
There was also increased demand for KN EngineChain product – launched in 2013 – a special service for the transport and handling of aircraft engines.
The new online portal KN FreightNet, which was brought to market in 2014, “underlines K+N’s innovative power while setting a new standard in the airfreight industry” it said.
In comparison to the previous year, airfreight EBIT improved by 7.2 per cent to SFr 238m. The conversion rate developed positively from 25.3 per cent in the previous year to 27.0 per cent.
In it container ocean freight arm, K+N handled over 3.8m teu in 2014, which represents an increase of 242,000 containers or seven per cent more than in the previous year. In maritime, K+N once again grew significantly faster than the global seafreight market, which gained around four per cent.
Detlef Trefzger, K+N chief executive, commented: “In a volatile economic environment with fluctuating currencies, we were able to simultaneously expand our market share and increase results in 2014.”
Dr Trefzger added: “For the first time profits were reported over four consecutive quarters. I would also like to emphasise the continuously excellent performance in airfreight and the further improvement of results in contract logistics.
“In seafreight we grew volumes and held margins stable, despite the high volatility of rates and negative currency impacts.”
Total K+N group net turnover of SFr17.5bn was 1.9 per cent (in constant currencies 5.1 per cent) higher than in the previous year.
Gross profit rose by 0.5 per cent (in constant currencies 2.9 per cent) to SFr6.288m and the operational result (EBITDA) increased by 4.5 per cent (in constant currencies 7.8 per cent) to SFr1,005m.
Earnings for the year improved by 6.1 per cent (in constant currencies 9.7 per cent) to SFr644m.
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