Kuehne + Nagel UK managing director Marcus Bennett oversaw a 43.5% jump in profitability at the 3PL during his first full year in charge of the British arm of the Swiss multinational.

UK-derived turnover at Kuehne + Nagel (K+N) rose to £1.16bn in the year-ending 31 December 2014, according to Companies House filings, up from £1.11bn in the previous year.

Pre-tax profit increased by 43.5% to £35.3m, compared to £24.6m in 2013.

Contract Logistics

Its contract logistics division saw a slight dip in turnover to £338.5m (2013: £345.2m), but the operator said it had implemented contracts throughout the trading year that had been won in 2013 – citing extensions with Virgin Media and Airbus as “noteworthy and important to the division’s future”.

K+N has also been awarded a new contract to run Waitrose’s ambient national DC in Milton Keynes – a deal K+N said demonstrated “the strength that the division has in the UK contract logistics market” and “will provide a significant increase to… turnover and profit”.

The four-year contract began in July.

Its contract logistics division also handles storage, distribution and for the MoD – a subcontracted deal to US logistics giant Leidos. Work on a £60m hub, located between MoD Donnington and Telford’s Horton Wood Industrial Estate, is set to begin next month.

Freight Forwarding

In its International Freight Forwarding division, home to its Overland freight operation and ex-RH Freight Group business, turnover rose to £827m, from £772.3m. K+N singled out contract wins in airfreight and sea freight as reasons for growth, but also the overland operation that is “performing ahead of targets” and benefited from the new cross-dock site in Dagenham.

KNDL

KNDL

Primary and secondary drinks distribution arm Kuehne + Nagel Drinks Logistics, which trades as a separate business and is not incorporated into Kuehne + Nagel Ltd, saw its profit slump however in seperately published accounts at Companies House.

This resulted in pre-tax profit of just £334,000 in 2014, compared to £7.4m in the previous year. Turnover rose slightly to £199.1m, from £198.2m.

K+N said that turnover, while marginally improved, was behind forcast levels as growth in primary fleet activity had levelled off and “no new significant business was added during the year”. However it said that negotiations with Diageo had resulted in a new contract for warehousing and distribution which began in April 2015, and it had felt the benefit of a full year of secondary distribution for Shepherd Neame.

K+N Drinks Logistics also opened a new national DC in Derby in 2014 for all of Heineken’s off-trade warehousing.

The company also noted a “clear divide between growth activity in the south of the country and decline in the north” which it said put further “pressure on the need to balance resource between northern and southern depots”.

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