Mainfreight profit jumps 66% on stronger trading in Australia and NZ

Global logistics and freight forwarding company Mainfreight says improved trading in Australia and New Zealand drove its earnings sharply higher in the first half.

The firm said its net profit shot up 66.4% to $155.4 million in the six months to September from a year earlier, which was affected by high operating costs.

Revenue rose by 19.8% to $3.12 billion, resulting from a combination of increased customer activity and market share gains.

“New Zealand and Australia continue to perform well, with reasonably strong gains in market share across both countries,” Mainfreight said.

“We delivered a much improved result across our European operations, with increased freight volumes and improved margins from our transport business driving this result,” the company said.

“Further intensification across our Netherlands transport network is underway and we continue to investigate opportunities for domestic freight into and out of Germany,” it said.

Mainfreight said it expects to increase its warehousing footprint in Belgium and it will open its first warehouse in Poland in early 2027.

Profitability and revenue performance across Mainfreight’s European operations remained heavily reliant on its Netherlands and Belgium businesses.

“We have a strong focus on sales growth in France, Germany, Romania, Poland and the United Kingdom to diversify our earnings base in Europe,” it said.

“We remain cautiously optimistic that our trading performance will continue in the months ahead.”

The company’s transport business reported revenue of $1.474b, up 24.2%, and a profit before tax of $116.4m, up 99.2%.

By division, New Zealand reported revenue of $693m, up 20%, and a pre-tax profit of $66.9m, up 52%.

In Australia, revenue came to A$810.82m, up 10.1%, while profit before tax was $74.03m, up 26.2%.

Mainfreight announced an 85c first-half dividend, which was unchanged.

Jamie Gray is an Auckland-based journalist, covering the financial markets, the primary sector and energy. He joined the Herald in 2011.