Annual Report 2021: Historic record year for a. hartrodt
Freight forwarding revenues show largest increase in percentage terms in Asia and South America.
2021 marks a. hartrodt's most successful financial year ever in the company's history since 1887. On the occasion of the recently published annual report, Andreas Schroen, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in the management holding company in Hamburg, emphasizes: "Compared to 2020, the group's freight forwarding revenues have increased by 56.4 percent to 742 million euros, mainly due to a strong growth in freight rates, but also as a result of more orders." Due to the huge increase in revenue, which significantly exceeds Andreas Schroen's expectations, the margin has decreased slightly. Regionally, the group's percentage revenue share improved in Asia (up 4.7 percentage points) and in South America (up 2.0 percentage points).
Turbulent world market, smooth generation change
In the course of 2021, bottlenecks in global supply chains intensified and cargo space became scarcer in a. hartrodt's most important business sectors, sea and air freight. Their share of sales was 62.4 percent (sea export/import) and 30.0 percent (air export/import). Despite turbulence on the world market, the generation change in management from Andreas Wenzel to his son Felix Wenzel went smoothly.
"We want to grow in all regions"
With a stable workforce of about 2,000 employees worldwide, the holding company's trio of Managing Directors – Jan van Tienhoven, Felix Wenzel, Andreas Schroen – is consistently pursuing a. hartrodt's expansion strategy. "We want to grow in all regions, both through smaller acquisitions, as in 2021 with the OTS Group in Australia, and with new products, for example for intermodal transport," says Andreas Schroen. The equity, that has increased by almost 20 million euros, forms a solid financial basis for this. The CFO sees the greatest potential in India, North America and EMEA. "First-class service quality is crucial, especially as customers are spreading their transport risk more and more among several logistics providers," he emphasizes.
After the tendency from 2021 continued in the first half of 2022, according to Andreas Schroen, there were signs of a slight trend reversal in the third quarter: "Customers are buying more thoughtfully, and there are free volumes again in some trade lanes." For 2022, he expects sales of 830 million euros.