C.H. Robinson produced revenues of $3.71bn in the three months ended June 30, 2017. This represented a 12.4% year-on-year increase. However, operating income fell 22.2% to $182m.
The increase in total revenues was driven by volume growth in its transportation segments. Personnel expenses increased 5.2% in the quarter due to a rise in headcount of 8.1%. Other selling, general, and administrative expenses increased 19.4 percent. This increase was driven by increases in claims, costs related to the addition of the APC business, the provision for bad debt, and warehouse costs.
In its North American Surface Transportation segment (including truckload, LTL and intermodal), revenues grew 10.3%, with operating income down 23.2%.
In Global Forwarding, total revenues grew 48.2%, with operating income up 23.6%. Volume increases were strong, and the purchase of APC helped push up margins.
John Wiehoff, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of C.H. Robinson, said, “We were able to continue to achieve market share gains during the second quarter; however, our income and EPS results were disappointing and finished below our expectations. Our results were significantly impacted by truckload margin compression. Purchased transportation costs increased significantly during the quarter, while much of our customer pricing is committed at relatively flat prices. We have a strong history of honouring our customer contracts while adjusting to the market conditions, and I’m confident we will adapt and execute those changes in the months to come. We continue to execute against our long-term strategic initiatives to grow and diversify. The Global Forwarding business delivered solid results in the second quarter with both double digit net revenue and operating income growth.”
Source: C.H. Robinson
