Profits growth in Norbert Dentressangle’s transport business offset a small fall in logistics in the first half.
Transport EBITA rose from 26.8m euros to 31.7m euros on sales up 7.7 per cent to 1bn euros.
Sales in the logistics business rose 18 per cent to 862m euros but EBITA fell from 31.6m euros to 30.8m euros.
The group said: “Logistics maintained satisfactory growth, notably in Italy, Poland, Switzerland and Romania, and especially in the UK which now accounts for 42 per cent of total logistics revenues.”
The exception was the Belgian logistics operation, which the company said was currently being turned around.
The transport results reflected how operating staff managed to adapt capacity while maintaining productivity in the face of sharply reduced volumes, the group said.
Sales in the freight forwarding business doubled to 68m euros and the division achieved break even in the first half.
For the group, EBITA was up 9.2 per cent to 64.3m euros and total sales were up 13.3 per cent at 1.9bn euros.
Chief executive François Bertreau said: “While the world, and specifically the European, economy clearly did not help our business to grow in the first half of the year, I still believe that Norbert Dentressangle is holding up well by managing to maintain its operating margin at a time when the business reflects the difficulties of our industry and retail customers on their own markets. Our performance boosts my confidence in our ability to cope with future fluctuations in the economy.”