DHL Supply Chain & Global Forwarding

DHL Supply Chain (DSC) is by far the world's largest 3PL and contract logistician. Contract logistics revenues were 53% of its gross logistics revenues for 2010. The revenues for Exel (DHL Supply Chain - Americas) contract logistics are $4 billion with 491 warehouses and 95 million square feet of space. Exel/DSC has operations of virtually every kind on every continent. Current major initiatives involve expansion in pharmaceuticals and sustainability. DHL Global Forwarding (DGF) grew through the acquisition of highly respected companies like Danzas. DHL and Danzas are strong branches in Europe and Asia. DGF currently has 31 global carrier partners with 81 contracts on a multitude of trade lanes and more than 330 gateway facilities. Its annual volume is 2,772,000 TEUs and its LCL is 2,000,000 cubic meters. There are more than 45,000 weekly point pairs for LCL globally. DGF handles 2,200,000 shipments annually. DHL's scope allows its customers to more easily adjust vendor supply chains.

Kuehne + Nagel

Kuehne + Nagel is the second largest ocean freight forwarding operation handling over 2.9 million containers per year. It is also the fifth largest airfreight forwarder. With the addition of the ACR group, contract logistics operations more than doubled in 2006 and are now 52% of net revenues. The industry breakdown for its contract logistics operations is: Retail 35%, Healthcare 22%, Technological/Telecom 18%, Chemicals 7%, Automotive 6%, Fulfillment 5%, Misc. 5% and Services 2%. Kuehne + Nagel’s North American logistics network totals 12 million square feet of space across 50 DCs. There are 11 DCs in Canada (located in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, and Edmonton), 30 single- and multi-client DCs in the U.S., six facilities in Mexico, and four Mexican border locations for transborder/customs services. Americas business for Kuehne + Nagel is 14% of net revenues. Net revenue was $826 million in 2010 for the Americas with over 50% from freight forwarding. Kuehne + Nagel has developed its own land transport management and trucking network for Europe.

DB Schenker Logistics

DB Schenker made significant purchases from 2006 to 2008 to double the size of its operations. The purchases include BAX in 2006, Spain-Tir in 2007 and Romtrans in 2008. Romtrans was the largest forwarding company in Romania with $140 million in revenue and 1,500 employees. Operations go as far east as Georgia. Spain-Tir had over 700 trucks and 16 million square feet of warehousing space covering the Iberian Peninsula. BAX added significant North America and Asia capacity. The gross revenues are each over $2.5 billion – the Americas (6.5% of total revenue) and Asia (5.2% of total revenue). German operations, including Europe’s largest rail freight and trucking operations, are 70% of total revenues. DB Schenker’s European trucking by land transport has 23,000 employees/owner-operators and handled 81 million shipments in 2010. Russian and Eastern European operations are substantial. DB Schenker is significantly expanding its contract logistics operations. Dave Bouchard was added to lead the Americas effort. Detlef Trefzger leads global contract logistics and is spearheading expansion efforts. North American contract logistics operations are 42% Consumer Goods, 30% High-Tech, 16% Industrial and 12% Automotive. DB Schenker is now second among world air freight forwarders (1.2 million metric tons), third in ocean freight (1.6 million TEUs) and fifth in contract logistics.

Panalpina World Transport

Panalpina is a Top 10 freight forwarder. It is the third largest in air freight and fourth largest in ocean freight. It handles more than 1.2 million TEUs per year, more than 800,000 metric tons of airfreight and about 1 million tons of non-containerized break bulk cargo. It has 242 sub-contracted warehouses in 150 countries and is consistently profitable. The life blood of Panalpina is its ongoing financial stability and transparency. Its gross profit runs greater than 20%, EBITDAs (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization), EBITs and net incomes consistently run among the industry’s best. Like all of the truly strong players, these results are clearly and straightforwardly reported for each financial period. Gross profit (net revenue) runs 49% for air freight, 39% for ocean freight and 12% for logistics. Panalpina concentrates on six verticals/segments: Automotive, Healthcare, High-Tech, Oil & Gas, Retail/Fashion, and Telecommunications. Telecom growth was major in 2007. Its Oil & Gas operations are primarily in project logistics, which accounts for 10% to 15% of Panalpina's revenues.

UPS Supply Chain Solutions

UPS is an 800 lb. gorilla of global supply chain services. Revenues for contract logistics were $1.8 billion in 2010. Net freight forwarding/NVOCC/customs brokerage revenues were $4.7 billion. UPS SCS had a profitable year in 2010. UPS SCS contributes $2 billion+ per year in package business to its big brother. UPS handles about 700,000 TEUs per year as a freight forwarder. Twelve percent of containers are LCL consolidations; 40% are Asia-U.S. Forwarding revenues are 60% air and 40% ocean. UPS has 1,400 employees involved in customs brokerage: 400 in Aiken, SC, 250 in Cleveland, OH, and 750 in Louisville, KY. UPS has redesigned its supply chain operations to concentrate on high-tech, medical and some retail/consumer goods customers. These operations are highly integrated between value-added and package delivery services. Revenues per employee run $175,000 to $180,000.

Sinotrans

For many years, Sinotrans was completely protected by People’s Republic of China law from direct foreign competition until recently. In some ways it is a very transparent company. Eighty-one percent of revenues are derived from freight forwarding. Sinotrans handles 6.9 million TEUs, 384,100 tons of airfreight and 21 million express packages per year. Sinotrans Limited is a joint stock limited company incorporated in the People’s Republic of China on November 20, 2002 with China National Foreign Trade Transportation Corporation (“Sinotrans Group Company”) as its sole promoter. The Company was listed successfully on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited on February 13, 2003. The Group’s core services are freight forwarding, express services and shipping agency services and its support services include storage and terminal services, trucking and marine transportation.

CEVA Logistics

CEVA Logistics is one of the world’s largest logistics companies and has been the world’s largest automotive 3PL. It has a heavy emphasis on manufacturing and is expanding operations in other sectors. CEVA’s industry sectors are Automotive 25%, Technology 24%, Consumer/Retail 20%, Industrial 15%, Energy 6% and Other 10%. CEVA operates in over 100 countries. The CEVA operations we have visited get top marks. CEVA is very good at value-added support activities. Its Matrix™ software suite reflects its range of logistics capabilities, including materials management. CEVA’s core services include fulfillment centers, high-velocity cross-docks, sub-assembly, sequencing, dedicated contract transportation, and network designs/redesigns. Its revenue is split 50/50 between Contract Logistics and Freight Management. The Americas account for 30% of its revenues, Asia Pacific 29%, Northern Europe 23% and Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa account for the rest. Private equity owner, Apollo Management, acquired EGL Eagle Global Logistics which was rebranded as CEVA Freight Management in 2007. EGL added global freight forwarding to match CEVA’s high quality value-added warehousing, materials management and other contract logistics capabilities. In 2008, CEVA introduced its Century Partnership Account Program for 100 of its key customers selected by its Executive Board. These accounts have a global scope and represent more than half of CEVA’s total business. Fiat, CEVA's largest customer, began moving many of its operations outsourced to CEVA back in house in the spring of 2011. Also, CEVA's Apollo Management funding reckoning has been rescheduled to 2016-2018.

Expeditors International of Washington

Expeditors is the largest, best run North American-based freight forwarder. Net revenues have reached $1.7 billion and produce a gross margin of 28%. 2009 was a difficult year but revenues have come back in 2010 exceeding 2008 levels. Net revenues are 38% air freight forwarding, 39% customs brokerage and 23% ocean freight forwarding. U.S. and Asia business account for 81% of revenues. Expeditors is the largest forwarder/NVOCC in the Asia/U.S. lane. It handles about 880,000 TEUs per year globally. Of those, 428,000 are shipped from Asia to the U.S. Expeditors’ European operations are primarily in airfreight and constitute about 13% of revenues. Expeditors net revenues run 40% high-tech, 33% retail, 10% pharmaceuticals, 10% automotive, 5% furniture and 2% other. Expeditors limits its participation in value-added warehousing and distribution.

Bolloré/SDV Logistics

Bolloré Logistics is made up of Bolloré Africa Logistics, a major stevedoring company in Africa which generates 43% of revenue, and SDV a quintessentially French transportation and freight forwarding company, which generates the remainder of logistics revenue. Bolloré Africa Logistics, which has been in Africa for over 50 years, has 250 subsidiaries, about 20,000 employees and operates in 43 countries. SDV is ranked No. 1 in France by the IATA and No. 5 in Europe. It operates in 92 countries with a large footprint in Europe, Africa and Asia. It also has 15 branches in major U.S. cities.

DSV

DSV is primarily a non-asset operation. EBITS are 5.2%. Nearly half of its operations are European over-the-road, its Air & Sea division makes up about 43% and Solutions (logistics) accounts for the rest. The DSV Group is Denmark’s second largest supplier of transport and logistics services. The Group originates in the Nordic countries but has established its own operations in more than 60 countries in Europe, the Far East and the Americas. Via professional and advantageous overall solutions, a worldwide yearly turnover of €5.7 billion is realized by the Group’s 21,300 employees. ABX Logistics was acquired by DSV on October 1, 2008. ABX Logistics was included it DSV’s financial statements as of that date – under the Air & Sea division.

Nippon Express

Nippon Express covers Japan. It’s Japan’s largest domestic transportation company and its Pelican Express operation is the largest package operation in Japan. About 90% of Nippon revenues are from domestic Japanese operations. Its international operations in forwarding and contract logistics are tied to its Japanese base. In addition to truck-based operations, Nippon provides harbor and ship transportation, air freight forwarding and warehousing. Its warehousing is tied to its freight forwarding operations. The major question for Nippon is how much will it grow internationally?

Pantos Logistics

Pantos Logistics has a full set of tools including air and ocean freight forwarding, rail and road transportation in Korea, warehousing, customs, and express transportation. (DCC assets in South Korea only.) Customers include Korean based companies like LG and internationals like Philips. Pantos is a good international supply chain manager with a large freight forwarding base (1.5 million TEUs and 330,000 airfreight metric tons).

Agility

Agility has expanded its business dramatically from its warehousing base in Kuwait. It is a Middle Eastern leader in integrated supply chain solutions and is organized into three major business groups. Global Integrated Logistics (GIL) is the largest generating approximately 65% of Agility’s revenues and having more than 23,000 employees. The majority of GIL’s revenues (just under 90%) are generated outside of the U.S. It has core competencies in freight forwarding, contract logistics/warehousing, project logistics, fairs & events, and supply chain management 3PL services. The Defense & Government Services (DGS) business group generated approximately 32% of Agility’s revenues and had a workforce of over 10,000 before 2010. It provides 3PL services tailored to governments, relief agencies and international institutions worldwide. These services include extensive warehousing and trucking operations in Kuwait to support U.S. Department of Defense distribution needs in the region. Another business unit is Investments which draws on local insights from Agility’s global network to identify real estate and private equity opportunities in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Investments accounts for approximately 3% of Agility’s revenues and employs more than 2,000 people. Hans Hickler, previous employed at APL and DHL, is now COO of Asia and is expanding operations particularly in Southeast Asia and Vietnam.

Kintetsu World Express

Kintetsu‘s largest operations within its global network are in Japan and China, with over 100 offices located in each of those countries. Forty-four percent of its business is airfreight based. Ocean and logistics business accounts for 42%. KWE has a host of strategic joint ventures and affiliated companies. Its verticals are high-tech, automotive, healthcare and others. It has 138 logistics warehouses outside Japan, with 6.4 million square feet (warehouse space in Japan is over 2.6 million square feet). Fifty-eight of those warehouses are in China. KWE handles about 870,000 metric tons of airfreight and 465,000 TEUs of ocean freight annually. KWE listens to the “Voice of the Customer” and promotes long-term collaborative business partnerships. It’s a quality management success story.

Hellmann Worldwide Logistics

Hellmann is a privately held German company which continues to be competitive against the big guys. It has good freight forwarding and contract logistics operations. Coverage in Asia and China is extensive. The U.S. generated about 11% of total revenue in 2010.

UTi Worldwide

UTi's net revenues increased 14% last year. UTi’s contract logistics and distribution operations are 63% of net revenues. UTi has strong forwarding operations in Asia with an emphasis on airfreight and a major drug distribution operation in South Africa. It is expanding its contract logistics operations in Asia particularly in India, which it has designated for major market expansion. UTi’s roots are in South Africa and it does very well in British Commonwealth countries.

Yusen Logistics

Yusen does not have the kind of strong domestic base in Japan that characterizes Nippon and others. It has aggressively grown international markets and expanded through organic growth and acquisitions. It started in 2001 by combining purchases and adding a transportation and warehouse network to expanding contract logistics and airfreight operations. Contract logistics and distribution are strong in Europe. In the Americas, seven companies have been combined to create a broad suite of logistics services offered in North, Central and South America. Automotive, industrial and retail/consumer goods verticals are emphasized. Its automotive logistics includes roll-on/roll-off, JIT and parts distribution. Nippon Cargo Air is now an NYK owned entity and Americas has its own airfreight forwarding capability. Sister company, Yusen Air & Sea, is a major airfreight operation, particularly within Asia and recently set up a strategic agreement with Panalpina. Japan accounts for nearly 50% of the business. Revenues for Yusen are split between air and ocean freight forwarding, warehousing, and domestic U.S. transportation management.

Geodis

Geodis is France's largest provider of transportation and logistics services and is one of the top European 3PLs. With third-party logistics revenues of $5.6 billion and 12,000 employees, Geodis Group covers more than 120 countries worldwide through its subsidiaries including Geodis Logistics, Geodis Wilson, and Geodis Supply Chain Optimisation (which grew out of its December 2008 acquisition of IBM’s internal global logistics operations). Most of the Group’s revenue is European based and accounts for 60% of total revenue, Asia-Pacific accounts for 20% and the Americas account for the rest. Geodis Group’s service portfolio has significant coverage in Europe where it has five core businesses: groupage (parcel delivery/LTL express), truckload, contract logistics, freight forwarding and supply chain optimization. Freight forwarding is its largest business segment generating 36% of revenue, groupage is next at 25%, then contract logistics 15%, supply chain optimization 13% and truckload 11%. In Europe, Geodis’ industry segment 3PL revenue breakdown is FMCG/Retail 42%, Automotive 17%, High-Tech 16%, Industrial 11%, Healthcare 4%, Textiles 3% and Other 7%. Geodis purchased TNT’s freight forwarder (Wilson) in late 2006. Wilson added significant new coverage for Germany, China, Australia, New Zealand, North America and South America. Geodis is expanding its penetration in the North American market through acquisitions including IBM and One Source Logistics. There are 18 offices including two for its chemicals specialist operation, Rohde & Liesenfeld. It relies on a strategic alliance with International Paper’s xpedx.

Damco

Maersk is the world’s largest container line. It and parent A.P. Moller have been financially strong, aggressive and successful for decades. Damco, its NVOCC and 3PL, has reported its separate financial results since 2009. Over half of its business is warehousing and distribution; about one-fifth of the net revenue is forwarding and consolidation. Supply chain management, airfreight forwarding and customs brokerage account for the rest. The majority of revenues are between Asia and North America. About one-third is in Asia-European traffic. Damco has marketed its new brand aggressively. In June 2011, it sold off its Gilbert West Coast apparel operations to NFI. In August 2011, it acquired a new operation, New Times Transportation, in China and opened a container freight station/cross-dock warehouse in Cambodia.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide

C.H. Robinson continues to be the most profitable tier-one 3PL regularly achieving net income margins greater than 20%. C.H. Robinson dominates domestic transportation management in North America. While 73% of Robinson’s net revenues are truck transportation related, it has solid domestic intermodal, international air and ocean, food sourcing, fuel card services and fuel management, and supply chain management. It has also been expanding its TMC operations which focus on large transportation network management. The TMC is now serving the Americas, Europe and Asia. Employees are highly incented to take care of customers. C.H. Robinson’s Canadian operations developed quickly and it has become a strong player with eight offices for freight brokerage, six for forwarding and three for produce. European operations have also been successful and profitable. They are a natural fit for Europe’s atomized owner-operator based companies. Asian operations continue to grow. Recently, Robinson acquired offices in India and continues to make careful purchases of companies with specializations and has access to the free cash flow to make more. C.H. Robinson's IT and business processes are tightly coordinated. Reporting capabilities provide good operating and profitability control. Ongoing modifications include much stronger and friendlier carrier/capacity management.

Kerry Logistics

Kerry Logistics' business portfolio encompasses contract logistics, international freight forwarding, warehousing, transportation, distribution, trading, merchandising and a wide variety of value-added services and is now managing over 26 million square feet of warehouse space, logistics centers and port facilities globally. Its Integrated Logistics division, mainly value-added warehousing and distribution, generates 44% of revenue and its International Freight Forwarding division generates 56%. Kerry Logistics handles 576,000 TEUs and 158,900 metric tons of airfreight annually. Kerry EAS Logistics, the brand name of Kerry Logistics in Mainland China, continues to provide high-quality logistics and solutions to customers in three major areas: freight forwarding, express parcel delivery and contract logistics.

Logwin

Logwin, formerly Thiel, is a conglomerate that acquired Birkart, Microlog and other companies. Logwin has subsidiaries for automotive, fashion/lifestyle/media and furniture. Logwin now has two business segments: Solutions (contract logistics) and Air + Ocean. Its Road + Rail business segment was discontinued in 2009. Its revenue split by business segment was about 50/50 in 2010. Nearly 70% of its revenue is Germany and Austria based.

Toll Holdings

Seventy-five percent of Toll’s revenues are Australian based where Toll has one of everything in logistics. Toll’s mission is to be the most successful provider of integrated solutions to the Asian region providing customers with global reach. Its largest vertical industry is Retail/FMCG, which accounts for 33% of its revenues. Sixty percent of SembCorp was acquired in 2006 by Toll Holdings which owns Australia’s largest trucking and distribution operations. SembCorp is one of the largest logistics providers in Asia. SembCorp has extensive Asian operations (16 countries) and a sizeable joint venture (St. Anda) in China. Its revenues are split as follows: Northern Asia 53%, Southeast Asia 41% and Other 6%. In March 2008, Toll took over BALtrans, a large intra-Asian freight forwarder with operations to the United States and Europe. Toll has rebranded BALtrans as Toll Global Forwarding. In February 2010, Toll acquired Summit Logistics International to integrate it into Toll Global Forwarding and expand its capabilities in the Greater China to U.S. trade lane.

Hyundai GLOVIS

Hyundai GLOVIS, formerly known as Hankook Logitech, is part of the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group under its parent company Hyundai Motor Co., Ltd. It specializes in the automotive, industrial and chemicals vertical industries. Over three-quarters of its revenue is Korea-based. The rest is generated by its 13 branch offices. Its Canada branch was established in September 2009.

Sankyu

Sankyu is an asset based, Japanese 3PL with a strong presence in the Asian market as well as operations in Europe, USA and Brazil. Although Sankyu still does a significant amount of project logistics, the main revenue from its logistics division is from the automotive, chemicals, consumer goods and retailing verticals. Logistics generates over half (55%) of Sankyu's total company revenue. On January 15, 2010 the construction of Sankyu’s new Flagship Distribution Center was complete. It has a total of 907,400 square feet and is located across from the container yard at the Port of Kawasaki, near Tokyo.