The transport and logistics company says investments in its customer relationships have paid dividends this year

Transport and logistics firm CH Robinson has recorded record profits for the second quarter of 2022, according to a statement from the company.

President and chief executive officer Bob Biesterfeld said the company’s business model had performed as expected, with its customer focus helping to shield it from rising costs.

“Our investments in our customer relationships through the early part of the cycle, while the cost of purchased transportation was rapidly increasing, are paying dividends as we retain and gain share with these customers through the terms of our agreements,” he said. “Our strong results were again driven by significant operating margin expansion in our North American Surface Transportation (NAST) business, as we further improved the profitability of our truckload and less-than truckload businesses and grew our truckload volume in a declining market. Our Global Forwarding team continued to deliver strong financial results, while benefiting from the market share they’ve gained over the past couple of years.”

CH Robinson Bob Biesterfeld

President and CEO Bob Biesterfeld

According to the results, gross profit increased by 37.7 per cent to US$1bn, while income from operations increased 80.2 per cent to US$469.7m.

Total revenue reportedly rose by 22.9 per cent to US$6.8bn, driven mainly by higher pricing across the majority of services and higher truckload and ocean volumes, while gross profit increased by 37.7 per cent to US$1bn.

Meanwhile, income from operations increased 80.2 per cent to US$469.7m, thanks to an increase in adjusted gross profits, which was offset in part by a rise in operating expenses.

“As questions linger about global economic growth, inflationary pressures and consumer discretionary spending, our global suite of multimodal services, our growing digital platform, our responsive team of logistics experts and our resilient and flexible non-asset-based business model put us in a position to continue delivering strong financial results,” said Biesterfeld. “While we are pleased with our performance this quarter and the fact that both NAST and Global Forwarding delivered operating margins above our publicly stated targets, we know that we have work to do to consistently deliver at our targeted level.

“The work that the team is executing related to scaling our model, eliminating internal legacy processes and improving quality, while working backwards from the needs of our customers and carriers, will drive continued improvement in operating profits long-term.”