WABERER’S INTERNATIONAL Revenues Hit by Brexit

Budapest-headquartered transport and logistics company WABERER’S INTERNATIONAL Co. Ltd said its revenue in the second quarter of 2019 decreased by 6% to EUR 173 million. The decline is due to lower volumes in the aftermath of the end-of-March Brexit date affecting Q2 trade flows negatively in the international segment. The 7% growth in Regional Contract Logistics services failed to counterbalance the Brexit impact. Problems related to the implementation of a new transportation management IT system also affected international operations and April results negatively, the company said, adding that all major issues have since been resolved.

Waberer's, which owns around 3,500 trucks and employs 4,500 professional drivers, believes that the transformation program they have implemented has started yielding results, with positive profitability effects expected to gradually increase in the second part of the year.

“Waberer’s second quarter results reflect several industry- and company-specific factors that had adverse effects on the Group’s financials. Notably, it was the month of April that was hit by a combination of market forces and internal issues. The whole industry was severely impacted by the aftermath of the end-March Brexit date, when demand for transportation services inbound to the United Kingdom dropped dramatically as warehouses had previously been filled preparing for a disorderly Brexit. As a result of this demand shock, many of our clients shut down temporarily and European cross-border transportation capacities were redirected to continental Europe, pushing April and May prices down by as much as 5-10% year-on-year, a sharp contrast to the cost-driven fee increases that we had seen before," according to Robert Ziegler, CEO of WABERER’S INTERNATIONAL.