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With a significant revenue increase of 22 percent, the intermodal and shortsea logistics provider Robert Kukla, headquartered in Munich, concludes its fiscal year 2022. “The expansion of the network through investment companies, along with the development of our own logistics products, has particularly contributed to this above-average success,” summarizes Kukla CEO Knut Sander. For 2023, he again expects organic growth of about 20 percent.
(Munich) With its eleven investment companies and the parent company in Munich, Robert Kukla achieved a revenue of 248.7 million EUR last year with 180,000 transported units. This represents an improvement of 22 percent compared to the previous year.
Investments Lead to Growth
According to Sander, the investments in building European locations are paying off: “With the increasing number of investments, we are working more efficiently, especially regarding fixed costs. Overall, our growing European network has created a high level of self-dynamics, which is reflected in a double-digit increase in revenue. The investment companies contributed the lion’s share of 30 million EUR to the total revenue increase of 45.46 million EUR. The parent company in Munich also performed disproportionately well, with a revenue increase of 14 percent.”
In particular, the locally managed locations have been very successful in independently developing logistics products. Sander cites as an example the establishment of full-load traffic with the integration of fixed carriers at the Düsseldorf location, which is developing rapidly. The Kukla company in Milan (Italy) introduced a train system with slot bookings for intermodal traffic in 2022, and the Hamburg location now handles the entire FOB processing for containers (organizing the pre-carriage to loading on board).
UK Trailer Traffic Increased by 50 Percent
The company also recorded a strong increase in UK shipments. “In the wake of Brexit, there was an immense shift of trailer traffic to containers, from which we benefited,” explains Sander. The transported volume has increased by about 50 percent to 24,000 containers annually. To become less dependent on external service providers, Robert Kukla has now opened its own customs agency in Folkestone.
Potential in Nearshoring and Existing Customer Business
For the current year, Sander again expects growth of about 20 percent. This is mainly driven by the existing customer business. “The larger network brings new opportunities for our customers, especially in the intermodal sector, where synergies arise,” Sander specifies and adds, “with shippers whom we strongly supported during the acute supply chain issues, we are experiencing greater appreciation and loyalty than before the COVID-19 pandemic.” The Kukla CEO also sees potential in the emerging trend towards nearshoring: “The sourcing markets are moving closer to Kukla’s home market. We are represented with intermodal logistics solutions in the growth regions of Eastern Europe and North Africa, also including shortsea. Our transport volume in the relevant countries is currently increasing significantly.”
Photo: © Robert Kukla / Image Caption: After a revenue increase of 22 percent in 2022, Kukla CEO Knut Sander expects organic growth of about 20 percent for 2023.
