A surprising year for A. Hartrodt
A. Hartrodt exceeded expectations with its result in the difficult year of 2020. At EUR 112.1 million, the gross forwarding profit (gross profit) was only 0.9% below that of 2019.
Andreas Schrön, chief financial officer, commented: "At the beginning of March 2020, I had expected a net loss for the year."
Special business such as the transport of vaccines or respiratory equipment in air and sea freight had a positive effect. Higher freight rates caused freight forwarding revenue to rise by 2.7% year-on-year to EUR 474.5 million.
Air freight (38% share of sales) and trucking (3% share of sales) revenues increased despite lower order volumes. In the important sea freight segment (56% share of sales), however, this was not possible, "because we did not fully pass on the extreme rate increase to customers," Schrön explains.
a. hartrodt generates around half of its turnover in Europe. Increased freight forwarding revenues in China (+ 55%) had a positive effect on Asian sales. The forecast for 2021 is a turnover of almost EUR 630 million. (sh)