France's Geodis wants to increase its operating profit (EBIT) margin from 3.8 percent of global revenue to 6 percent over the next three years, despite sales remaining only stable or even declining, a far cry from the peak ocean and air freight rates reached in the 2021-2022 period.
The plan is part of the "Ambition 2027" strategy recently proposed by sncf's logistics group.
Geodis' revenue in the first half of the year fell 8.6 percent to 5.54 billion euros ($5.72 billion).
Geodis CEO Marie-Christine Lombard further elaborated on the goals of the "Ambition 2027" strategy in an interview with French media, a GeODis spokesperson confirmed to the Loadstar.
"Our sales are going to grow and recovered volumes have to translate into higher earnings," she said.
Lombard noted that to achieve this, GEODis will focus on working with key customers to understand their supply chain strategies, anticipate changes and adjust products accordingly.
However, given US President-elect Donald Trump's plans to impose tariffs on products made in China, Europe or Mexico, which could lead to a reallocation of international trade flows, this will not be easy.
Geodis has four core business lines: global freight forwarding; Global contract logistics; Delivery express; And European road transport.
Lombard believes freight forwarding should grow faster than average in the medium term, "provided we can provide an end-to-end solution, not just moving goods from one port to another or between two airports."
Geodis has 82,000 active customers out of a total of 120,000 in its database, but only 47 of them have called on all four of the group's business lines, she revealed.
"This represents €2 billion of total sales of €12 billion. Our customers should be the customers of every one of our business lines, but that's not the case. So it's up to us to keep winning new business."
The "Ambition 2027" strategy also includes the implementation of new digital tools aimed at improving the efficiency of GEODis' 2,000 sales staff through new software solutions developed by U.S. cloud software company Salesforce.
Mr Lombard added: "We have lacked a [digital] platform to enable users to browse our service offerings, but now we have mygeodis.com, a platform that allows users to request and get quotes in real time and allows us to sell the group's various lines of business more efficiently."
As for GEODis' international growth, it has been through targeted or complementary acquisitions - the most recent examples being Need it Now deliveres, a US contract logistics and last-mile delivery company, and Trans-o-flex, a German specialist in the controlled temperature transport of pharmaceuticals.
Such procurement allows GEODis to serve its customers more effectively with fewer subcontractors and more direct control over pre - and post-shipment activities.
Such mergers and acquisitions are likely to continue, but the transformative acquisitions GEODis had been considering a few years ago to propel it into the top five logistics providers in the world appear to be off the agenda.
This year, its longtime French rival Bollore Logistics was sold to CMA CGM and merged with Ceva Logistics to create a joint entity much larger than Geodis, followed by DSV's massive acquisition of DB Schenker.
However, SNF's response to the prospect of following DB's lead in buying Schenck and selling GEODis was unequivocal: "GEODis is a highly strategic subsidiary."