Hupac's strategy set till 2026
In Zurich, the group management of the European intermodal player Hupac (f.l.t.r.: Benedetta Masciari, CFO; Hans-Jörg Bertschi, president; Michail Stahlhut, CEO) recently presented its figures for 2021 and gave an outlook on its strategy.
2021 was "a mega year for Hupac", as CEO Stahlhut explained. The group's 2021 turnover increased by over 14% compared to 2020 and reached CHF 682 million mark for the first time. Ebitda climbed by 22.4% to CHF 64.8 million. With an annual profit of CHF 12.4 million, Hupac more than compensated the losses incurred in the corona year 2020.
Bertschi underlined that especially in the home region of Switzerland, the real shift of truck traffic from road to rail has reached important proportions: "Rail cargo had a market share of almost 75% in transalpine traffic in 2021. This is a world record. Rail’s average market share in cargo transport in European countries is currently 15%."
In total, Hupac's transport volumes soared by 10.7% to almost 1,125,000 road consignments, a lot more than in 2020 (1 million consignments, -0.9% compared to 2019). While, at CHF 24 million, investments in tangible assets were unusually down in 2021, they will rise to more than CHF 80 million in 2022.
CFO Masciari pointed out Hupac's plan to increase its wagon fleet, which consisted of about 8,100 wagon modules by the end of 2021, by another 1,000 own units till 2026 and additionally rented wagons, since technical modifications for the units are under consideration.
Hupac is also investing in terminals on a European scale with Milano Smistamento, Piacenza and Novara in Italy, the new Brwinów terminal close to Warsaw (into operation in the course of 2022) and its involvement in the construction of the Duisburg Gateway Terminal (2025) and the Basel North Gateway (2026).
"For the strategy period till 2026, the company is targeting an annual volume increase of 7% to arrive at a traffic volume of 1.6 million road consignments per year, representing an increase of 40% compared to 2021.” (cd)