A survey of the ten largest logistics companies shows that, while revenues declined last year, profitability had remained have improved over the past two years but remain below 2007 levels for 12 of the group.
Some are so indebted that returns are barely covering large loans taken out to make pre-crisis acquisitions, but meanwhile, freight forwarding divisions – the most volatile of the four business segments covered – maintained margins above 4.4% throughout the crisis despite a sharp drop in revenues in 2009.