Eastern Europe and Asia keep Geodis’ results positive

French transport and logistics group Geodis today reported a 1.1% increase in revenue in thefirst half of 2012, against the backdrop of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe the worsening

At constant exchange rates, revenue was down 1.5%, although the company said its “strongmomentum” in eastern Europe and Asia had limited the impact of the crisis on its results, as itmanaged to achieve operating income of €14.3 million, up 5.9% year-on-year.In addition to salesgrowth, cost-cutting plans introduced in late 2009 continued to impactresults positively, thecompany added.

Highlights included Geodis starting the year by winning a new logistics and distributioncontract with Mattel in southern Europe. Meanwhile, in eastern Europe the opening of a newlogistics platform near Moscow and acquisition of MFCargo, a leader in transport and distributionin Hungary, accelerated Geodis’s development and “demonstrated its ability to bring its customersend-to-end supply chain management”, Geodis claimed.

“In France, the partial takeover of Sernam’s activities, based on a solid business model,enables Geodis to further develop its groupage and express business. Also in the beginning of theyear, Geodis announced the expansion of its Evry logistics platform in the Paris region. In thelong term, Evry will become Geodis’s largest platform in the south of Paris,” it added.

Looking forward, the company concluded: “With no global economic recovery in sight in 2012,Geodis will forge ahead with its strategy to win new business and pursue its transformation planswith the aim of enhancing organisational flexibility and improving productivity.”