Gebrüder Weiss Prevails in a Difficult Market Environment

The international transport and logistics company Gebrüder Weiss closed the 2024 fiscal year with net revenues of 2.71 billion euros, representing a ten-percent gain over the previous year (2023: 2.46 billion euros). “We’re firmly on track: Despite geopolitical and economic tensions, we gained market share and grew, countering the overriding trend. By investing in our network, automation and digital innovation, we succeeded in expanding our range of services and developing the transport solutions our customers need – with the explicit aim of guaranteeing supply chain stability,” says Wolfram Senger-Weiss, CEO of Gebrüder Weiss.
 
In the Air & Sea sector, the group reported the highest increase in revenue with 939 million euros, a gain of 21 percent (2023: 776 million euros). This growth was powered by various factors, including the expansion of the networks in the United States and Germany, alongside high transport volumes in transpacific trade. Rising sea freight rates for exports from China to Europe provided an additional boost. Attacks in the Red Sea forced container ships to take the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) instead of through the Suez Canal.
 
Revenues in the Land Transport and Logistics segment rose by five percent to 1.52 billion euros (2023: 1.45 billion euros). This figure includes sales generated by the Home Delivery service. Cargoes such as refrigerators and furniture are transported to end customers in Austria and several eastern European countries implementing a two-man handling service.
 
DPD Austria, which is partly owned by the Gebrüder Weiss parcel service, processed more than 63.2 million parcels last year. This translates into an increase of one million parcels compared to 2023. The main growth drivers were exports and private consumers.
 
The company's equity ratio remained steady at 60 percent, positioning Gebrüder Weiss as a crisis-resistant service provider and dependable employer. The workforce across the group’s 180 locations worldwide rose slightly to 8,700 (2023: 8,600). Despite the economically challenging environment, the logistics provider adhered to its investment strategy. During the fiscal year ended, a total of 124 million euros were devoted to expansion and modernization measures, environmentally friendly power generation and e-mobility.
 
Gebrüder Weiss commenced construction of a modern logistics and IT center featuring a fully automated high-bay warehouse – in the immediate vicinity of its corporate headquarters and the Wolfurt freight terminal (Vorarlberg/Austria). A new logistics facility was opened in the southern German town of Straubing, providing Bavaria’s industrial and commercial players with efficient transport links to national and global markets. Gebrüder Weiss also expanded its locations in Maria Saal (Austria), Aldingen (Germany), Bratislava (Slovakia) and Tbilisi (Georgia). In Budapest (Hungary), an Autostore warehouse was built as part of the site expansion program; here inbound cargo handling, material flows and order picking are largely automated. The U.S. business is growing, with the logistics specialist acquiring the air-and-sea freight forwarder Cargo Link from Salt Lake City, Utah. Together with the recently opened branch in Phoenix, Arizona, the network in North America now encompasses 17 company-owned locations.
 
Gebrüder Weiss has also charted further progress with its digital service palette: the number of customer-based users registering for the myGW portal has risen to 25,000 since its launch in 2020. The platform provides real-time information on all goods flows and gives customers full transparency on the progress of their orders. In 2024, the application’s functions were progressively fine-tuned to better meet costumer’s needs.   

< Korea Shipping Gazette >