Kuehne and Nagel crates

Swiss logistics giant Kueneh and Nagel (K&N) has announced that it registered an improved set of results for the first nine months of the year, despite reduced volume growth.

The group saw earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) grow 6 per cent year-on-year, despite reduced growth rates in the strongest business unit, seafreight.

Turnover climbed 1.5 per crent to CHF15.7bn (€12.7bn), while net earnings totalled CHF442m (€358m), up from CHF357m – although the latter figure inclded a one-off item of CHF65m.

“We concentrate on profitable growth and are on good track to reach our goals,' said Detlef Trefzger, CEO of K&N International AG. 'In seafreight, our most important business unit, we focused on the quality of business instead of volume growth by all means. In a demanding market environment we thus reached our profitability target in seafreight.

'Strict cost management will remain in place for the whole company and at the same time we will also continue to enhance the spectrum of solutions and the service quality for our customers,' he added.