Expeditors sees record-high growth despite volume dip

The good times continue to roll at U.S.-based forwarder and logistics services provider Expeditors International – even when cargo volumes are down, the company reports double-digit growth in net income, operating income and operating margins. In fact, CEO Jeffrey Musser said 2015 was the best year in the company’s history.

For the fourth quarter of FY 2015, Expeditors said net income rose by 15.2 percent, year-over-year, to US$114 million on revenues of $536 million, a 3.3 percent y-o-y increase. Operating income was also ahead by 12.7 percent to $178 million, compared to Q4 2014.

Even more impressive than these numbers alone, Expeditors also said that airfreight volumes had fallen by about 1 percent in the last quarter, compared to the strong Q4 2014, which at the time was in the midst of the surge created by the U.S. West Coast port slowdown.

“While we believe we benefited in the first half of the year from some unquantifiable increase in airfreight because of the West Coast labor dispute, we were adversely impacted by a softening in rates and volumes in the second half of the year,” Musser said. Despite the decrease in volume, Expeditors’ Q4 2015 operating margin was 33.2 percent and its net margin was 21.3 percent.

For the full FY 2015, Expeditors enjoyed a net income that rose 21.3 percent to $457 million, net revenues that increase 10.4 percent to $2.19 billion and operating income that soared 21.3 percent to $721 million. The Seattle-based forwarder’s operating margin reached 33 percent for the full year, while net margin was 20.9 percent.