Economic Value Creation

We provide a wide range of services at the interfaces between producers, dealers and consumers – for example, supply for production, the distribution of goods or the transport of vehicles by road, rail and water. With logistical tasks becoming increasingly complex, the demands placed on us and our services are also increasing. The main drivers of this development are ongoing globalization, shorter product lifecycles, advancing urbanization and digitalization, and now also artificial intelligence (AI). Our industry continues to benefit from increasing demand, which is particularly linked to the growth of e-commerce models and returns processing in the B2C sector. At the same time, the ongoing pressure on margins presents a continuous challenge, as does competition for skilled workers and laborers, which is further intensifying – also due to demographic developments. Additional factors include the continually increasing importance of online retail, high expectations for delivery speed, flexibility and quality, and generally increased environmental awareness. After the previous year, the overall market environment remained difficult into 2024 due to numerous crises. The most important issues are Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine and the conflicts in the Middle East and the Red Sea. But the change of presidency in the United States, as well as inflation, shortages of skilled workers and climate change, have also contributed to this.

Financial corporate management

We have designed our management system for maximum clarity and transparency. Revenue, earnings before taxes (EBT) and the resulting EBT margin, as well as earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), are the key performance indicators. Since 2021, the remuneration system for our Board of Management has also included non-financial targets: CO₂ emissions, the trainee ratio and the rate of occupational accidents per 1,000 employees. In the meantime, this also applies to our employees without collective bargaining agreements in stages. Details can be found in the Fundamental Information about the Group – Combined Group Management section of the Financial Report.

Despite the challenging geopolitical and economic conditions described above, we closed the 2024 financial year significantly ahead of expectations. This shows once again that, thanks to our diversification across our three business segments, we are positioned to be robust and fit for the future. For example, the AUTOMOBILE Division significantly improved its result compared to the previous year despite declining volumes in vehicle handling and transport. This was achieved, among other things, through good capacity utilization and productivity at seaport and inland terminals, as well as the fact that car manufacturers are increasingly shifting various work over to service providers like us. On the other hand, the CONTRACT Division remained below expectations – mainly due to strong declines in volumes due to reduced demand, particularly when it came to car parts and industrial logistics. The CONTAINER Division was ultimately able to achieve a significantly higher result than forecast despite the difficult economic situation. Additional from storage fee and reefer revenues contributed to this.

In the 2024 financial year, Combined Group revenue rose only slightly from the previous year, by EUR 10,629 thousand to EUR 1,220,664 thousand – an increase of 0.9 percent. Meanwhile, Group EBT rose significantly by EUR 55,696 thousand, i.e., by over 150 percent. Similarly, EBIT also increased by EUR 57,150 thousand to EUR 103,342 thousand. The EBT margin in the 2024 financial year was thus 7.5 percent (previous year: 3.0 percent). The financial management of BLG LOGISTICS is described in detail in our 2024 Financial Report. All in all, we took advantage of the opportunities offered last year and initiated important changes. Nevertheless, we continue to face a volatile market environment – for example, global supply chains could be severely tested yet again by the implementation of trade restrictions. We are preparing ourselves for these and other challenges by consistently addressing topics such as digitalization, AI and automation, but also sustainability, in order to continually improve BLG LOGISTICS’ economic situation.

Added value statement

The information on economic value creation and allocation shows how we generated and used assets for our stakeholders. The use of net added value is a major indicator for the economic value creation of our business activities. It is calculated as the gross operating revenue, less depreciation and amortization (excluding personnel expenses) and amounted to EUR 688.3 million in the reporting year. The largest part was spent on BLG LOGISTICS employees, at EUR 526.9 million. In addition to pure wage and salary costs, social security and post-employment benefit costs are also included. Personnel costs rose slightly again compared to the previous year as the number of employees declined.

In addition to personnel expenses, the value added also provides a return to the capital providers. Of this, EUR 16.5 million is attributable to distributions and dividends to BLG LOGISTICS’ main shareholder, the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (municipality). In addition, profit distributions are made to shareholders of consolidated joint ventures and shareholders of BLG AG, and interest payments are made for bank loans. Payments to the public sector are mostly in the form of taxes and ground rent.

Added value statement BLG LOGISTICS 2024