For more than 10 years, the economic environment has been rising and falling unexpectedly, proving once again that transport and logistics are activities for ”surfers” who need to know how to attack each economic ”wave” to grow their company. The conservatives, who do not break the mould, have made moderate, comfortable profits, enough to cover inflation, some cost increases and further developments. The ”players” who bet on less accessible areas – grain, oil products, but also other goods originating in or destined for Ukraine or the Republic of Moldova – reported record increases, lifting almost unknown or very little-known names in the railway area to the top of the profit. Romanian hauliers start to gain momentum in the logistics and forwarding area, while most of the big ones still dominate the top, with moderate year-on-year jumps, but still very good. After years of takeovers and consolidations on the global logistics market, with effects on the Romanian market as well, the top of the most efficient logistics operators is slightly reshaping itself, with room for changes, especially as Romania is starting to be seen as an increasingly interesting market in the context of the war in Ukraine and the role it could play in the country’s post-war reconstruction.
After the increase in 2021, shipping and logistics companies saw record revenue growth in 2022, with the top 430 of them having a total turnover of more than €4.31 billion, more than half a billion euros more (+€865 million) than the €3.12 billion in 2021. The total profit of almost €217 million is about €68.35 million higher than in 2021, when €156.10 million was recorded. Unfortunately, 2023 ends with disappointment and concern from the logistics operators and forwarders. The e-commerce grew in Romania, but not from the domestic players, but from foreign sellers and especially Chinese, who required more work from the couriers’ side than logistics operators.
It should be noted that the 430 companies analysed come largely from the top of the companies with CAEN code 5229 (transport-related activities), with almost 20% of the companies making up the top coming from the area of warehousing (CAEN code 5220) and activities auxiliary to road transport (5221) respectively, where we find several companies in the area of rail and maritime terminals and road freight forwarding.
The turnover achieved by the top 430 companies operating in the road haulage and logistics industry in 2022 amounted to 4,312,801,263.10 euros, of which 80% (3,428,557,755.04 euros) was achieved by the Top 100 companies. The „plus” compared to 2021, some €865 million, was the contribution of the Top 100, with many companies at the bottom of the ranking registering decreases.
In terms of profit, the top 100 companies have achieved more than half of the increase in profit since 2021. Specifically, the profit recorded by the 430 companies analysed amounted to €217,553,271.09, of which €147,730,160.98 (68%) is Top 100 profit.
The total value of assets in the industry is €1,733,993,310.13, of which 70% (€1,219,669,444.21) is the value of the assets of the Top 100 companies. And of the 22,148 employees in the industry, some 71% – 15,643 – are employed by Top 100 companies.
The top companies with the highest turnover are led, as every year, by the two big distributors, Aquila Part Prod Com and Havi Logistics, whose turnover is not only made up of the value of invoices for logistics and transport services, but also includes in many cases the price of the products sold.
Schenker remains the leader. Maritime specialists are still climbing.
Of the forwarding companies, Schenker Logistics Romania is still in first place, with a turnover of €170 million, up by €35.37 million (+20%), followed by Kuehne + Nagel, with €148.74 million, €48.15 million higher than in 2021. The shipping specialist took advantage of the market situation in 2021 and still in the first part of 2022 and recorded a 32% increase in revenues, well above the results of the last 4-5 years. Incidentally, this is the second time that Kuehne + Nagel has climbed to second place in the top shippers. The contribution to the increase in revenue came not only from shipping, the German forwarder’s strong point, but also from groupage and road transport, for which it moved its cross dock warehouse from Timișoara to Arad for easier access to the border. Kuehne + Nagel has also invested heavily in the expansion of its logistics services, signing a contract with Pepco and bringing the total storage area to over 150,000 m2.
The launch of the online booking application myKN, which was later extended to all modes of transport, played an important role in increasing efficiency last year.
Transmec, ranked 4th in 2021 among shippers, has moved up to 3rd place in 2022, although it has seen a 23% increase in turnover (the same as last year), from 93.33 to 121.77 million euros. One explanation for the slightly lower growth than Kuehne + Nagel may be that the Italian-owned firm is not very active in the air & sea segment, which has brought the highest growth in the last three years.
Gebrüder Weiss dropped in 2022 to fourth place in the shippers’ ranking (sixth place if we include the two distributors), with a turnover of €115.69 million, up 18% on 2021, when it recorded €95.60 million.
In 5th place (up from 6th in 2021, when it had a turnover of €77.57 million) came cargo-partner Expediții, with €92.21 million, up by €14.63 million (+16%). The Austrian shipper also recorded spectacular growth in 2021 (+€31 million), when it ranked for the second time in the top 10 shippers in Romania. The growth came both from the air & sea segment and from the other activities – road, contract logistics, customs. Cargo-partner has been pulling hard for turnover growth in recent years, probably because the owners wanted to sell the company. This happened in May 2023, when they announced the takeover by Nippon Express. The Japanese company thus gets access to the central and eastern European market, while the local subsidiaries of the Austrian logistician will now benefit from NX Group’s global and especially Japanese presence.
In 6th place drops DSV Solutions (5th place in 2021, before Transmec), with a turnover in 2022 of €89.38 million, €10.46 million more than the previous year (€78.92 million in 2021).
DSV Solution’s figures still incorporate in 2022 the results of DSV Road, on the way to legal separation in 2023 from the main company, just as happened with DSV Air & Sea a few years ago after the takeover of Panalpina.
As in all cases, the growth of the Road Freight division was higher than that of the Contract Logistics division, with the latter recording organic growth of 5% over 2021. With a new 12,000 sq.m warehouse in Bolintin and new customers in the cosmetics and home & deco retail sector, the Contract Logistics division expected turnover to grow by 10% in 2023. But even so, after the legal separation of DSV Road, what remains in DSV Solutions – warehousing, handling, co-packing, ecommerce, other value-added services and national distribution – will not be able to compete with the top 10 firms, most of which make big figures mainly from road and sea freight forwarding activities. Virtually the only company in the Top 10 that does predominantly Contract Logistics services is Quehenberger Logistics.
The new independent company DSV Road SRL has a good chance of staying in the top 10 on its own, especially as its expansion plans on national distribution and intermodal transport bring in extra business month after month, with a turnover of €100m targeted maybe not even in 2023, when the market has not been the best, but there are chances to reach its proposed target when it separates from the CL division, especially if inflation continues to go up even in 2024 or 2025.
But if we look at DSV Air & Sea we again see a jump of 5 places, from 22nd to 17th (but not as big as in 2021, when it went from 40th to 22nd), from 27.25 to 50.88 million, so an increase of 87%. If we add up the results of DSV’s three divisions (of the two companies that have so far reported data for 2022, DSV Solutions and DSV Air & Sea, the DSV group would have figures close to Kuehne + Nagel’s, ranking 3rd overall.
Yusen Logistics kept its 7th position with a turnover of €84.01 million, €15.07 million more than in 2021 (+22%).
Places 8-9 in the ranking are claimed by IB Cargo and Quehenberger Logistics, both moving up one position in the ranking. IB Cargo, with €82.22 million, remained one place ahead of Quehenberger (€81.30 million), as in 2021, when the two firms still finished shoulder to shoulder: €60.51 million and €58.65 million respectively. And that’s after Quehenberger was ahead of IB Cargo in 2020, with €43.58 million compared to €37.88 million that IB Cargo had booked, after an excellent year in the midst of the pandemic.
IB Cargo ended an excellent 2022 for the company’s revenue and profitability, with a 36% increase (+€21.71 million) in turnover to €82.22 million, with an increasing percentage of revenue coming from the Contract Logistics division managed jointly with Maersk. IB Cargo last year expanded its warehousing space for the furniture manufacturer served jointly with Maersk – with a further 8,200 sq.m being added in 2022 to the 60,000 sq.m warehouse taken delivery of at the end of 2021, also in CTP Bucharest West – but an important growth segment was also Asia-Europe rail transport. The shipper has continuously increased its turnover by expanding its services with punctual solutions, whether by road, air, sea or rail, depending on what needs emerged on the market each year. Its power of adaptability and inspiration has helped it to enter the Contract Logistics market with great success, a segment that the company hopes to develop further in the coming period.
On the other hand, Quehenberger Logistics, as anticipated since 2021, continued its growth trend manifested since 2020, reaching a turnover of 81.30 million euros in 2022 (an increase of 39% compared to the previous year), against the backdrop of the largest Contract Logistics portfolio, built balanced on customers in classic and online retail, automotive, fashion, building materials. The biggest growth comes from the FMCG segment, where the experience gained in recent years has allowed it to win new customers and expand existing ones. The company planned to invest almost 3 million EUR in equipping its warehouses and warehouse management systems to keep pace with horizontal expansion, with more than 300,000 sq.m operating across the country by 2023.
The international takeover of the company by the Geis Group could also bring increased development in the road, air and sea freight forwarding segment, on which Quehenberger Logistics Romania has not focused so much in recent years, preferring to focus on developing value-added services, where experience makes the difference. The Geis Group, on the other hand, active in Germany and Switzerland, is very interested in developing in Central and South-Eastern Europe and certainly the full truck road freight forwarding part, as well as groupage in particular, are on its radar.
The top 10 shippers’ ranking ends with DHL Logistics, which is ahead of GEFCO Romania (now ranked 11th) and KLG Europe Logistics (ranked 13th at the end of 2022). DHL Logistics has seen a consistent increase in turnover of €29.69 million, reaching €79.36 million at the end of 2022 (+60%). KLG Europe is only €53.89 million this year and thus loses 5 places from last year when it was in 8th position. After last year’s high growth of 43%, in 2022 it dropped by €11.25 million (-17%).
Between DHL and KLG Europe ranks the Iași/Suceava-based forwarder Lincor Trans, which has CAEN code 5221 for activities of ground transport services, after a period when it was exclusively involved in road haulage. Thus, the company is in 12th position with a turnover of €58.97 million, recording a 21% increase in revenue.
FM Romania managed in 2022 to climb in the ranking after KLG Europe, but overtaking Delamode and Gopet with a turnover up by almost 22.50 million euros to 51.61 million euros (+77%).
Delamode, however, swaps position with Gopet, achieving a significant increase (+40%), from €35.84 million in 2021 to €50.32 million. Gopet, on the other hand, grew by only 24%, from €38.48 million in 2021 to €47.82 million.
After Gopet climbs in the Top Elvada Company with an extraordinary growth of 103%, no less than 20.10 million euros more, reaching a turnover of 39.57 million euros. The huge jump from 39th to 16th place was due to the development of the electric bike business, with Elvada doing light bike assembly and marketing in Constanța. Half of the almost €40 million made in 2022 came from this business. In addition, Elvada has expanded its warehousing capacity by almost 10,000 sq.m in its new location in Constanța Business Park. The geographical location led them to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the new flow of goods to Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, building relationships with new customers in the two countries for which they offered transport solutions.
The last „switch” in the Top 20 was made between Rhenus and Orient SRL. The Suceava-based shipper achieved a spectacular 43% increase in turnover to €39.26 million, an increase of almost €11.73 million, thanks to growth in all segments, but especially in container and bulk transport. In parallel with the increase in the number of customers in sectors such as cereals, automotive or construction, the company has been busy opening new offices (in Bucharest, Rădăuți – where it also built a warehouse – Iași, Cluj and Arad) and increasing the number of employees. At the same time, the InterOrient group set up two new companies in business sectors other than transport and logistics/expedition. Orient has also accessed European funds to purchase new equipment to increase the comfort and performance of employees and the company (photovoltaic panels, software, automation, furniture, refurbishment, kangen water machines, etc.).
The company from Suceava is followed by Calberson Romania and Rhenus Logistic, both with an increase in turnover from 26 to 33.5/33.9 million euros.
Next come a number of firms that do road transport and forwarding and which we would have moved to the transport firms ranking, even if they do not have CAEN code 4941. These are Criboser in Bihor – which has grown enormously, from €17.9 million to €29.17 million, after making just €5.6 million/year in 2018, by doing refrigerated transport of food, pharmaceuticals, fruit/vegetables, Atlas Imobiliare, the automotive express specialist, but which in recent years is making the switch to trucks due to restrictive legislation for van transport, further developing shipments with a focus on automotive (increased turnover in 2022 to €28.9 million from €20 million in 2021) and Quattro Intersped in Argeș – which also increased by €7.27 million to €27.5 million in 2022.
Next is All Cargo Express from Timiș, which has been among the top Romanian-owned warehousing and logistics companies for several years. The Timișoara-based firm spun off from carrier MVT Logistik ended 2022 with €26.99 million, €7.19 million more than in 2021.
IDL Bucharest – with a more moderate increase of €3 million to €26.38 million, which shows the constancy of the business, the 13% increase practically covering inflation and part of the cost increases – is followed by Transfer International Spedition, with an increase of €4.4 million to €25.44 million, Lactalis Logistics (€24 million, +€4 million compared to 2021), Fast Freight in Constanța and Romfracht (both over €23.5 million, +€3.2 million compared to 2021).
Slightly changed ranking by EBITDA
If we look at EBITDA, the ranking of logistics operators is slightly changed from the ranking by turnover. The first three places are unchanged: Schenker Logistics is also in first place with 21.3 million euros, followed by Kuehne + Nagel with 11.1 million euros.
DHL Logistics and Quehenberger are better placed in the EBITDA ranking, with €7.8 million and €7 million respectively, while the turnover figures are also close for the two companies – 79 and 81 million euros respectively – which are ahead of GebrüderWeiss in the EBITDA ranking (GW’s EBITDA is 6 million euros) while turnover exceeds that of DHL and Quehenberger: 115.69 million euros.
IB Cargo remains constant in both top rankings with almost €6 million EBITDA and €82 million turnover, below DHL, Quehenberger and GebrüderWeiss, as does DSV Air & Sea with almost €5 million EBITDA and €50.8 million turnover.
Consistency can also be seen in the case of Elvada (€3.1 million EBITDA/nearly €40 million turnover) and Cargo-partner Expediții (nearly €4 million vs. €92 million turnover) or IDL Bucharest (€2 million EBITDA vs. €26.3 million turnover).
Euroccoper (about €3 million vs. €16.2 million turnover) ranks higher in the EBITDA ranking than in the turnover ranking. Conversely, DSV Solutions (€1 million EBITDA vs. a turnover of almost €90 million), Hellman Worldwide Logistics (€1.2 million vs. €22 million), FM Romania (€1.3 million vs. €51 million) and Gopet (€500,000 vs. €47.8 million) are lower in the EBITDA ranking than in the turnover ranking.
We let in the top after EBITDA also the rail and sea operators which we didn’t do in the turnover ranking, because we wanted to make a comparison across the different types of activity inside the logistics sector.
Kuehne + Nagel again has the highest turnover growth
According to the absolute value of the difference between the turnover recorded in 2021 and 2020, the company with the biggest jump is Kuehne + Nagel (+48.15 million euros), followed by Schenker Logistics (+35.37 million euros), DHL Logistics (+29.69 million), Transmec Ro (+28.43 million euros), DSV Air & Sea (+23.63 million), Quehenberger Logistics (22.64 million), FM Romania (22.50 million), IB Cargo (+21.71 million), GEFCO Romania (20.89 million), Elvada Company (20.10 million), Gebrüder Weiss (20.08 million), Yusen Logistics (+15.07 million), cargo‑partner Expediții (+14.63 million), Delamode (14.48 million) and Orient (11.73 million).
A total of 18 companies recorded an increase in turnover of more than €10 million, with the two distributors with the biggest increases: Havi Logistics, with €57.99 million more, and Aquila Part Prod, with €47.82 million.
The average operating income is EUR 380,000/employee and the average cost EUR 22,000/employee
The operating revenue per employee of the top 100 freight forwarding and logistics operators by turnover ranges from €1 million (for freight forwarding companies doing only transport sales) to €78,000 for full-service firms, i.e. also doing transport or warehouse logistics services. The average operating income per employee for the top 100 is therefore €380,000/employee in 2022.
Thus, large forwarders, which also have a good share of Contract Logistics services (or other activities in maritime terminals or cross-dock centres involving more blue-collar staff), such as Schenker (983 employees), GebrüderWeiss (641 employees) or Kuenhe + Nagel (757 employees), have revenues of almost €200,000/employee, which places them only in the second half of the top 100 according to this indicator.
Expeditors International, Englmayer Romania – both with around 110 employees – Ekol International Logistics (53), Calberson (176), KLG Europe Logistics (319), Delamode (313), OVT Logisticzentrum (80) – reach revenues of around 160,000 EUR/employee, with more or less employees, depending on whether they are more focused on forwarding or logistics services, while Raben Logistics Romania or Hopi Ro Logistics, which invest heavily in groupage activities, reach 135,000 EUR/employee.
Higher up are the forwarders with a small share of Contract Logistics in the business, those specialising in sea freight (a segment where rates were still very high in 2022): DHL Logistics has one of the highest revenue/employee – €1.12 million/employee – with Aries Logistics and DSV Air & Sea also close to the €1 million/employee threshold.
Two companies with high revenue per employee – Gefco (EUR 810,000/employee) and Hartl Connect Transport GmbH Austria Branch Timisoara (EUR 617,000/employee) – have EBITDA below EUR 125,000/year and no profit in 2022 either.
A very high revenue per employee (721,000 EUR/employee) is recorded by I.B. Cargo, which mainly does forwarding, but already in 2022 the first logistics services contract with a furniture manufacturer started. This is also evident from the number of employees, as it is the only company with more than 100 employees not only in the top 15, where it ranks in terms of revenue/employee, but also in the top 44. The good result can be explained by the selection of the types of forwarding services it does, generally services that require more specialisation.
Cargo-partner Expediții ranks 43th, with an operating revenue of 381,000 EUR/employee, being one of the companies with the highest number of employees (242) also involved in Contract Logistics, not just shipping. Other companies with a higher number of employees are Transmec (46th place, with 313,000 EUR/employee and 397 employees) and DSV Solutions (51nd place, with 235,000 EUR/employee and 384 employees).
In terms of average cost/employee in 2022, the top 6 have more than 40,000 EUR/employee, operating mainly in the maritime shipping segment. In first place is DSV Air & Sea (EUR 53,000), followed by Cosco Shipping (EUR 48,000), IB Cargo (EUR 47,000) and MSC Romania Shipping (EUR 42,000). Gefco spent in 2022 EUR 36,000/employee and DHL Logistics and M&M Militzer & Munch – EUR 29,000/employee.
Gebrüder Weiss, Kuehne + Nagel, Schenker Logistics, Calberson, Ekol International Logistics are in line at EUR 20,000/employee, as are 14 other companies in the industry. In fact, the average cost per employee in 2022 for the top 100 shipping and logistics companies is 22,000 EUR/employee, with the lower end of the ranking – between 11,000 and 16,000 EUR/employee – being companies that mainly do Contract Logistics and have a lot of employees in the warehouse (Quehenberger Logistics, IDL Bucharest, FM Romania or Yusen Logistics, with more than 650 employees up to 1,450 employees) or companies that also have lots of drivers.
DB Schenker, also leader in profit
The highest profit in 2021 was made by Schenker Logistics Romania – €17.04 million, €14.22 million more than in 2021 – which is also increasing its assets from €66.43 million to €71.59 million. At a small gap of just €1.23 million is Aquila – with a profit of €15.81 million, €3.02 million more than in 2021, when Romania’s largest distributor completed some integrations/acquisitions in the company prior to the listing.
In 3rd place in the Top Profit climbs Kuehne + Nagel, with €8.30 million (+€5.18 million), which also benefited in the first half of 2022 from high container transport prices, but also grew in road and Contract Logistics at the same time. The German logistician is also soaring in Top Assets, even though it has no warehouses: from 17.22 to 27.61 million euros (+60%). The increase in assets is due to investments in equipment and software, including the trucks used for internal distribution being leased.
Next up is DHL Logistics which climbs to fourth place – with a profit of €7.05 million (+€2.91 million) – which also increased its assets in 2022 by €5.90 million to €15.40 million.
In 5th place is Quehenberger Logistics, with a profit of €5.28 million, which has almost doubled its profit compared to 2021 (+€2.76 million). The Contract Logistics specialist is also increasing its assets (+26%), from €18.30 million to €23.20 million, due to an increase in the amount of warehousing space it operates.
A significant jump in profit is also recorded by IB Cargo with €4.66 million (+€1.94 million compared to 2021), which also increases the value of its assets very much (+36%, although it is still a light asset company), from €12.36 to €16.83 million.
The top 10 firms sorted in order of profits is completed by Transmec, with €4.49 million, which thus increases its profit very much by €2.61 million (+139%) and its assets by 16% to €43.43 million, followed by a new entrant to the Top, Phoenix Logistics Solutions, from Constanța, which has an explosive increase in profit from €7,305 in 2021 to €4.17 million (+4.16 million), an increase thus of more than 100%. In 9th place is Gebrüder Weiss, which recorded a net profit of €4.12 million, €263,821 more than in 2021.
In the next tier of 10 companies there are a lot of companies that are in a similar top ranking ordered by turnover. Thus, after DSV Air & Sea, which recorded 3.88 million euro profit in 2022, 167% more than in 2021, when the profit was much more modest at 1.45 million euro, we find in the top cargo‑partner Expediții, with a net profit of 3.29 million euro, up 35% compared to 2021, when the profit reached 2.44 million.
It is worth noting that DSV Air & Sea also increased its assets in 2022, reaching €11.65 million, up by €2.33 million (+25%). DSV Solutions, however, is not in the Top 20 profit this year either, dropping to 125th place, with a profit of only €415,649, but with considerably increased assets, from €18.38 million in 2021 to €25.68 million.
In 12th place we find a company from Constanța – Silotrans – whose name indicates its involvement in the grain trade: €2.8 million profit, €320,000 more than in 2021. That’s despite the fact that the turnover for 2022 dropped from 10 to 8.68 million euros. After the distributor CBA Nord-Vest (€2.56 million), a number of road forwarders follow: Quattro Intersped, a transport and logistics company from Argeș, which managed to make a profit of €2.46 million, up 81% (+€1.10 million more than in 2021), Lincor Trans – with €2.44 million, €563,347 more than the previous year (+30%), Pallet Express, with a net profit of €2.04 million (+392.262 euros), an increase of 19%, and Tomat Prod Impex, a transport and logistics company from Prahova, which has taken advantage of what the area around Ploiești has to offer and developed a new fleet of trucks and a warehouse of almost 20,000 sq.m with which it has made a profit of 2.28 million euros (with one of the largest increases in profit in 2022, of 1.28 million euros compared to 2021). That’s against a turnover of €7.56 million, up 55% on 2021, when it made €4.88 million.
After Euroccoper (2.1 million euros) and Elvada (2.09 million euros) with increases of 609,456 euros in the case of Euroccoper, respectively 1.18 million euros, in the case of Elvada, appears in the top „veteran” Karl Heinz Dietrich International, with 2 million euros profit, a small increase compared to 2021 (+248,529 euros), 14%, similar in the turnover plan – from 19 to 21.9 million euros, in line with inflation almost.
With a turnover of €16.27 million, €3.86 million more (+30%) than in 2021, Euroccoper scored in profitability thanks to the expansion of its forwarding and customs brokerage services, seeking to play a role as important as possible in the transport of grain from Ukraine, in parallel with the development of established logistics and forwarding services. In parallel with the increase in profit – 2.10 million euros compared to 1.49 million in 2021 – the Timișoara-based forwarder also scores in the Assets chapter, which increase by 989,197 euros, from 7.20 to 8.19 million euros.
In the case of Elvada, the company’s assets almost doubled from 7.39 in 2021 to 14.56 million euros, so an increase of 94%.
Another new entry in the top of logistics companies is First Bob, based in Bucharest, which climbed in the top Profit directly to 22nd place, with a net profit of €1.97 million, (up from €773,247). First Bob has a relatively low turnover compared to the profit it made last year: almost €5 million, after a turnover of €2.28 million in 2021.
In the top of the most spectacular profit increases in 2022 we find, of course, several new names that have grown as a huge business as a result of the redirection of grain and oil products traffic to/from Ukraine. ECS Logistics, for example, is a customs broker offering warehousing in Galați and Brăila and customs brokerage services in Galați, Giurgulești, Brăila, Constanța, Agigea, Mangalia, Dornești, Isaccea etc. – i.e. all Ukraine-Romania transit hot spots. With an increase in profit of €1.36 million (from €381,173 in 2021), ECS ranks 11th in terms of profit growth. Turnover increased by €1.69 million from €882,985 in 2021.
Among the top companies with profit increases of more than one million euros are 18 companies, among those not mentioned so far are GP Intermodal (active in rail container transport), Frial (from Constanța), Ars Altmann Ro (which finished 2021 with a loss) and Waberer’s Romania (which had a profit of only 149,167 euros in 2021).
We note the absence of some companies from the Top 20 by turnover in the top of the most profitable companies, the most notable of which is DSV Solutions, as mentioned. Another absence in the Top Profits is GEFCO, a firm that recorded a non-operating loss of €40.94 this year, after three other years of higher losses: €886,589, €710,896 and €584,695. A light asset company, GEFCO increased its assets last year by 64% to €25.88 million (up from €15.74 million the previous year), after declining every year from 2018 to 2021.
It remains to be seen how the company’s business will evolve after the takeover by Ceva Logistics, with no official statement yet on the strategy for the continuation of the two firms’ activities.
Another firm consistently present in the Top 20 Turnover, but not in the Top Profit, is Gopet, which recorded a profit of €357,818 up from €330,746 in 2021. The company also increased its assets in 2021 from 9.97 to 15.36 million euros (+54%).
In total, 48 companies recorded a net profit of more than €1 million in 2022.
Billion-dollar assets in warehouses, software, equipment
Total assets of firms working in logistics total €1.73 billion, €202 million more than last year. Unlike transport, where Romanian-owned companies are the majority in the Top 20 assets, thanks to investments in fleets and cross-docking depots, ahead of multinational fleets, which rent vehicles so that they can easily relocate them when legislation is no longer favourable, multinational companies have the largest investments in shipping and logistics.
And this is the case for companies with a policy of owning warehouses – Schenker Logistics (€71.59 million), Karl Heinz Dietrich International (€92.63 million), Gebrüder Weiss (€44.01 million) or FM Romania (€23.37 million) – as well as for those with investments in intermodal terminals or rail wagons: Transmec (€43.43 million) or Yusen Logistics (€21.47 million).
The distributor Aquila Part Prod Com still has the highest asset value, with over €170 million invested in warehouses, vehicles, equipment, software systems, etc., but also a lot of cash into the market.
Alongside companies with their own warehouses, the top Assets list also includes light asset companies such as Kuehne + Nagel (€27.61 million in assets), GEFCO Romania (€25.88 million), DSV Solutions (€25.68 million) and Quehenberger Logistics (€23.20 million).
Although the year started extremely poorly for both e-commerce and traditional retail, amid the drastic reduction in consumption, 2023 could end honourably for the logistics and forwarding industry if we manage to streamline the transit of goods to and from Ukraine, although the restriction of access of Ukrainian grain to the Romanian market may also have had adverse effects on transit to other regions.
With all the decreases in transport volumes, especially in maritime, but by default also in shipping, the 2023 ranking will certainly look different than the one published now, with many companies used to showing profit gains year after year struggling this year not to make losses. It remains to be seen what news the end of the year brings.