B Logistics registers growth for the first time
“With our Green Xpress Network we are redefining the standards for European rail transport,” the rail freight company announces
In 2015, B Logistics (Brussels) managed to put a stop to the downward trend in transported volumes which started in 2012. The transported volumes of 29.4 milllion tonnes exceeded the 2014 levels by 4%.
This is a result of a new commercial dynamism. Accordingly, B Logistics launched six new products last year in the Green Xpress Network, a network of fast, direct and reliable rail links between economic hubs in Europe (www.greenxpressnetwork.com). The renewed confidence of customers is reflected in the conclusion of long-term contracts.
The further recovery and increase in volume are reflected in the substantial improvement of operating profitability. The EBITDA has gone from EUR 9 million in 2014 to EUR 15 million in 2015. This means a 70% improvement.
2015 was a special year with two major achievements. First, the winding up of an agreement with a private shareholder. This occurred through an investment by the investment funds advised by Argos Soditic. In total EUR 96 million was contributed in one form or another, providing B Logistics with the financial resources to pursue its future plans. The second condition was the conclusion of a social agreement giving B Logistics autonomous control over the entire staff working in the freight business.
B Logistics is henceforth going flat out for profitable and sustainable growth. Geert Pauwels, CEO, B Logistics: “We have made enormous efforts these past years on every front. Management and our employees have done their utmost so that our company could survive. The result is not only the financial recovery of a company with an important social function. We have at the same time managed to turn ourselves into an autonomous, European rail operator which is dynamic, competitive and ambitious.”
B Logistics offers reliable rail transport and logistics solutions, operating block trains for conventional and intermodal loads and providing single wagon load transport throughout Europe.