GEFCO has released its financial results for the full year of 2020, displaying a 19.7% decrease in revenue being matched by a 19.8% drop in third-party service costs. The company has only seen a small drop in its operating margin, from 4.3% in 2019 to 3.7% in 2020, and has reduced its net financial debt by 57.1%, from €347.7m to €149.1m in a year.
Pavel Ilichev, Executive Vice President of GEFCO, stated, “When the crisis began in March with no end in sight, we took measures to limit the financial impacts by reinforcing strict financial controls throughout the organization. Moreover, our asset-light business model continued to offer elasticity in fixed and variable costs, and we benefited from government support to safeguard employment in a number of countries. GEFCO’s unprecedented positive free cash flow strengthened our liquidity position, and we had no requirement to seek additional funding. We focused on strategic initiatives with selective CAPEX and invested in electric vehicle charging stations at many of our compounds to support the electrification of the automotive industry.”
GEFCO’s Finished Vehicle Logistics division performed in line with the automotive industry as a whole, with revenues amounting to €1,545.7m meaning the division experienced a 21.9% drop in revenue, almost identical to the estimated 22% drop in European automotive production. Its Overland and Contract Logistics division’s revenue also decreased, down 19.7% to €1,828.5m, as did its Industrial Services division, down 38.3% to $90.8m. The company’s Air & Sea division, however, recorded a small increase in revenue of 1.6% to €339.8m.
GEFCO has partnered with multiple electric vehicle manufacturers and retailers in order to adapt to what it believes is a changing landscape, stating in its annual report a prediction that the market share of electric vehicles will be 26% of the mobility industry by 2026. So far, they have partnered with electric car subscription service Onto and the London Electric Vehicle Company in the UK and with Volvo’s electric vehicle brand Polestar in Shanghai. Also mentioned in the report is a new five-year partnership with Skoda, a renewal of its agreement to distribute Toyota and Lexus cars throughout Central Europe and Russia, and a partnership involving the distribution of 40,000 cars for Ford in France, all within its Finished Vehicle Logistics division.
Source: GEFCO
