The Team's Board Report - Mainfreight

31
CaroTrans – Greg Howard
The year end accounts for
2010/2011 were just finalised and
in true form, the CaroTrans team
delivered record breaking results:
Revenue increased: 33.2%
to US$150 million
Margin increased: 15.9%
to US$28 million
ROR increased to: 6.9%
Profit before Tax increased:
43.9% to US$10.3 million
Based on these results, CaroTrans
is the first International division to
break the $10 million mark … a pity
that the exchange rate is so low!!
This sets the foundation on which
we will build a bigger and stronger
CaroTrans.
Having learned valuable lessons
from the prior year, the team stayed
focused on cost containment, cash
collection, sales growth,
exceptional customer service and
teamwork. These remain critical
components for continued growth
and profitability during a period in
which margin compression is a
daily occurrence.
During the past year, we
experienced steady and consistent
export LCL (less than container
load) volume. We saw export FCL
(full container load) volumes
rebound in 2010 to record levels as
exporters shifted more volume to
NVO’s instead of committing all
their volume to the shipping
companies. This trend appears to
be a more permanent market shift
due to the added flexibility and
varied services offered by the
NVO’s.
Growth of our import LCL services
tracks below expectation. This
segment represents one of the
greatest areas of opportunity and
the renewed focus and
commitment from the team will
help bring about the change
needed to increase growth of the
highly profitable import services.
Entrepreneurial “outside the box”
thinking, resulted in a sharp
increase in the number of breakbulk
and “roll on/roll off” shipments
handled. We’ve quickly become
better known for our expertise in
shipping boats, heavy mining/
construction equipment, asphalt
plants and motor vehicles.
Building on the momentum, we
opened a new branch in Dallas,
Texas, expanded our Asia branch
Branch of the Year – CaroTrans Boston
What started out as an idea
sketched out on the back of a bar
napkin at the Ninety-Nine
restaurant in Boston, the opening
of the Boston branch in 2006
proved to be right from
the start. The team
embraced our Ready-
Fire-Aim mantra and set
their sights on winning
Branch of the Year.
They demonstrated the same might
and fight as the Minutemen of
Boston who sent the British forces
back to England with their tails
tucked between their legs!
network with branch openings in
Tianjin and Shenzhen, we
established CaroTrans Chile Ltda in
Santiago, and have plans to
establish our 14th USA branch in
Seattle, Washington before the end
of the year.
Understanding the difficulties faced
by our colleagues in the Canterbury
region following last year’s
devastating earthquake, the
CaroTrans team put aside their own
interests to focus on helping those
in need. In combination with
donations/contributions from
vendors and clients, CaroTrans
team members reached into their
owned pockets and raised
$12,412!! for the Mainfreight
Canterbury Relief Fund. We are
very humbled by this unsolicited
effort. Saying thank you to each
team member seems hardly
enough.
Thanks to the team for delivering
these wonderful results and for
having the attitude and dedication
which make us a very special
company. What we’ve
accomplished is beyond what
many may have expected and
clearly illustrates that “with
passion, anything is possible”.
Congratulations to Joe, Tom,
Adam, Ede, Kerrianne and Lauren
for winning Branch of the Year
2010/2011.
Often referred to as
“The Little Team That
Can”, Boston recorded
outstanding numbers:
88% increase in profit,
76% increase in sales,
margin improvement of 35%
and exemplified the CaroTrans
standards.
Michael Forkenbrock presents Joe Pimentel with the Branch of the Year award