MOTOR TRANSPORTATION TOP 100 2024 | Functions

It’s been quite a year for the trucking industry, with GXO outbidding Ceva to take over Wincanton and the Barclay family dumping Yodel. Not only that, but at the time of writing, Royal Mail is awaiting approval for a £3.6 billion takeover by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.

In fact, research from financial brokers Hilton Smith found that while the global M&A market was at a ten-year low in 2023, there was activity in the UK logistics sector, with 81 deals recorded, beating the previous record year of 2021.

This is consistent with Department of Transport data which shows the number of road freight businesses fell 4% between 2021 and 2022 to 55,733.

The Hilton Smith study highlighted the fact that despite declining profitability, mergers and acquisitions are allowing companies to achieve economies of scale and reduce costs.

And the extent to which profits have been squeezed by the UK’s economic slowdown is all too clear from the Top 100 list.

Overall, sales among the top 100 companies rose by an average of 3.5%, but some major players saw revenue declines, including DHL, DPD, UPS and Wincanton.

Return on capital employed fell from 7.4% to 4.8% as operating profit fell by an average of 35%. Operating profit margin fell from 3.3% last year to 2.1% this year.

Earnings before taxes, which include non-trading items such as interest payments, fell by an average of 37%.

The decline was driven by some major setbacks: Yodel made a pre-tax profit of £24 million and a loss of £160 million, while Wincanton’s profits rose from a profit of £38 million to a loss of £45 million. Only six of the 15 largest operators managed to increase pre-tax profits.

Overall, smaller operators have been more successful in maintaining profitability.

The good news is that business confidence is growing. The annual Logistics Confidence Index, calculated by Barclays and BDO, is 57.6, up ten points for 2024 on last year, suggesting operators believe trading conditions are improving. Confidence is highest among temperature-controlled operators (64.9). It is also clear that trust is higher among smaller operators – those with revenues of less than £50 million.

Companies are clearly taking steps to respond to the headwinds they are facing, particularly by reducing headcount. The number of people employed on our list of the 100 largest companies fell by about 1.2 percent, and as a result, sales per employee rose by an average of 4.8 percent.

Most commentators predict modest economic growth next year, but growth will accelerate next year. After a difficult year, all signs are that road transport will be well positioned to take advantage of this.

Explanation of MT Top 100

The rankings were compiled using information available as of October 23, 2024. The data was collected from reports filed at Companies House.

The table shows the company’s official registered name at Companies House, which is not always the same as the company’s trading name.

Turnover: To the extent possible, we have used data derived solely or primarily from UK road transport and warehousing activities, unless otherwise stated below.

Employees: predominantly those who work exclusively or predominantly in the UK.

Return on Capital Employed: Calculated as operating profit / (total assets – current liabilities) expressed as a percentage.

Profit growth: The minus signs (-) have been changed so they always mean worse.

For example, Royal Mail suffered a smaller loss in 2023 than in 2022. The calculation gives a growth figure of -14.7% (because losses are smaller). But since the column is called “Profit Growth”, intuitively this doesn’t seem right. Therefore, we changed the sign to 14.7% to reflect the fact that it is actually better.

Abby Logistics Group: was transferred to Sitra Invest NV in October 2023. As a result, its latest results cover the six months to December 31, 2023.

Extended Supply Chain: The figures reflect the results of Advanced Supply Chain Group’s operations excluding the results of its international forwarding business, Advanced Forwarding.

Arrow XL: Yodel Delivery Network and Arrow XL were separated after the sale of Yodel by the Barclay family. Arrow XL’s reporting period is 18 months to 31 December 2022.

Home delivery in the UK: New name for Panther Warehousing.

BSA Automotive industry: Includes Walon, Paragon Automotive Logistics and Sensible Automotive, which are subsidiaries of BCA Marketplace.

Cheva: Ceva acquired Gefco in 2022 and renamed it Ceva Ground Logistics. This time we have kept separate records for the two companies because the data for Ceva Ground Logistics goes back to 2022 – before the takeover. The impact of the acquisition is shown in the table of subsidiaries. Ceva is a subsidiary of CMA CGM and therefore a subsidiary of CMA CGM Inland Services UK, which is also in the top 100.

Kulina Group: includes Culina Logistics, Eddie Stobart Logistics, Great Bear Distribution, Integrated Packing Services, Morgan McLernon, CML F&L (Telford), Fowler Welch, iForce and Warrens Warehousing & Distribution (Midlands).

DHL: includes DHL Supply Chain, DHL International UK and DHL Ecommerce UK (formerly DHL Parcel UK). DHL Supply Chain employees are hired through DHL Services. DHL’s freight forwarding business is not included in our data. Exel and Tradeteam have been excluded from the figures as their roles have changed to now own and manage leased properties on behalf of DHL Supply Chain.

DPD: includes DPDgroup UK and DPDLocal (formerly Interlink Express). Profit before tax has been adjusted to take into account dividends of £70,011,000 paid by DPDlocal to DPDgroup.

ECM Vehicle Delivery Services (Cold Fell Group): Became part of BCA Automotive in April 2023. We highlighted it in this year’s Top 100 list because its reporting dates back to the period before its acquisition. Accounts are maintained for 15 months up to 02/04/23.

EV Downton: 2021 data has been restated.

Every: Hermes Parcelnet was renamed Evri in May 2024.

The essence: Was acquired by Marks & Spencer in July 2022. Data for 2023 refers to the 65 weeks to April.

Gregory Trading Holdings: New name for Gregory’s main company.

GHO Logistics: Created when XPO spun off its contract logistics business in August 2021. GXO Logistics UK II is the new name of Clipper Logistics, which became part of GXO in June 2022. Indicators for 2022 refer to 8 months. Wincanton was transferred to GXO in April 2024. This is shown separately in the main table and the impact of the acquisition is shown in the Subsidiaries table.

H Sevier Transport: Change at the end of the year. Latest data for 9 months to 12/31/23.

Kinaxia: Master entry refers to Kinaxia Ltd. We’ve included a separate table that shows the numbers for the companies that make up the company. AKW Global Warehousing has been renamed Kinaxia Logistics & Fulfilment.

Knowles Logistics: New name for Knowles Transport following the acquisition of Masters Logistical Services in October 2022.

Kuehne+Nagel: In 2023, turnover will depend on the contract logistics business (according to Kuehne + Nagel Ltd). Turnover from the freight forwarding business is excluded to reflect the contribution to the domestic road freight business. However, because K+N does not separate the two divisions into legal entities, we were unable to break down pre-tax profit, capital employed and number of employees in the same way. Thus, the profit and headcount data includes the international freight forwarding business.

Lenham Warehouse: Includes Lenham Storage and Lenham Storage Southern.

McBurney: includes McBurney Transport and Bondelivery Northern Ireland. The group became part of the DFDS in 2023.

Oxalis Logistics UK: New name Hoyer Gas & Petroleum Logistics.

Pentalver: Includes Pentalver Transport and Pentalver Cannock.

International distribution services: Parent company of Royal Mail. IDS provides return on equity data only for the entire group, not just for UK operations. For the year ending March 2024, parcels accounted for £4.1 billion of domestic revenue and letters accounted for £3.7 billion. GLS, the global parcel delivery company, generated revenue of £4.9 billion.

XPO: Includes XPO Transport Solutions UK and XPO Bulk UK. We have excluded XPO Global Forwarding and XPO Maintenance UK to reflect turnover and profits generated from domestic road freight.

Whistle: Whistl data for 2022 has been restated.

Wincanton: See GXO.

Yodel: Yodel Delivery Network and Arrow XL were separated after the sale of Yodel by the Barclay family. Yodel’s reporting period is 18 months to 31 December 2022. RoCE was ignored because it is based on negative capital employed.