Kuehne + Nagel acquires U.K. trucker, forwarder

Kuehne + Nagel acquires U.K. trucker, forwarder    Kuehne + Nagel Group reported improved profit and sales for 2010 and announced an acquisition Tuesday.
   The Swiss company said it has entered into an agreement to acquire the shares of the U.K. trucking and logistics firm Rennies Investment Ltd. (RH Freight), based in Nottingham.
   K + N said RH Freight is the market leader for consolidated or “groupage” freight between continental Europe and the United Kingdom, employing 630 staff across 17 locations in the United Kingdom and at two sites in Finland.
   It said RH Freight, via hubs in Nottingham and South East London, handles 425,000 shipments per year and operates to 32 European destinations daily. RH Freight is also active in sea and air freight as well as contract logistics.
   Meanwhile, K + N said it had net profit of 601 million Swiss francs ($647 million) in 2010, about 29 percent more than in 2009.
   Sales were CHF 20.26 billion ($21.83 billion) in 2010, up 16 percent from 2009. The company said sales increases by regions were Asia-Pacific, 32.3 percent; Americas, 25.5 percent; Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, 15.2 percent; and Europe, 12.1 percent.
   It said “sea freight business recovered its growth momentum of the pre-crisis years” with container volume increasing almost 16 percent, which it said was better than the market which it estimated grew 10 percent to 12 percent.
   “Kuehne + Nagel fully participated in the Asia export and import boom and recorded highest growth in the trades between Asia and Latin America,” the company said. It said less-than-containerload activities “contributed significantly to the results.”
   K + N said air cargo “increased on all routes, particularly in the traffic from and to the Asia-Pacific region high growth was recorded.” It said it handled almost 1 million tons, 25 percent more than in 2009.
   In road and rail logistics, the company said expansion of activities in the less-than-truckload and full-truckload businesses led to a 16 percent rise in net invoiced turnover after being adjusted for currency.
   “However, investments in additional locations in France adversely affected the operational result of this business unit, which was 17.3 percent lower than in the previous year.”
   The company said its contract logistics business gained a number of new contracts worldwide, resulting in a 5 percent increase in net invoiced turnover (currency adjusted). Idle space, caused by the 2009 crisis, was reduced significantly. But it added negative exchange-rate effects and still insufficient result development in North America impacted the operational result.

Lange

   Reinhard Lange, chief executive officer of Kuehne + Nagel International said in 2011, “our goal is to achieve profitable growth above market average in sea and air freight. In contract logistics we also target growth above market average while keeping margins stable. A combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions will result in further progress in European overland transportation. In addition, strategy implementation will focus on the expansion of regional operations, in particular in China, India, Brazil and Colombia, and the extension of tailor-made solutions for selected industries.”