Freightways Group Limited Analysis

Overview

Freightways is an operator of express logistics businesses in the express package, business mail, information management and waste renewal industries in both New Zealand and Australia. Across its brands Freightways handles over 100 million items every year utilising its core capabilities of ‘picking up, processing and delivering’ efficiently and at scale.

The company’s origins go back to 1964 in New Zealand, with the incorporation of New Zealand Couriers (an express package business), and 2007 in Australia, with the acquisition of Databank (an information management business). It has achieved growth on both sides of the Tasman both organically and through acquisition opportunities.

Freightways’ securities were listed in New Zealand in 2003.

Performance

The following information was extracted from Freightways Group Limited's full year results, released on 18 August 2025:

Business Performance

Freightways’ FY25 performance was better than macroeconomic indicators would suggest. While New Zealand’s GDP contracted by 0.6% over the year to March 2025, our total revenue increased by 6.6% year-on-year. Over the full year EBITA and NPAT also rose by 6.3% and 12.9%, respectively. Our lower debt level reduced interest costs and contributed to improved profitability.

The EPBM division achieved revenue growth of 6.2%, EBITA growth of 11.6%, and margin improvement of 60bps over the prior corresponding period. Although volumes were lower from our existing customers, this was offset by winning business from new customers.

The Information Management and Waste Renewal (IMWR) division had a mixed performance, with revenue up 9% but EBITA down by 3.1%, driven mainly by the performance of the Waste Renewal business in FY25. We expect that we will improve this performance over the coming year with a range of cost and price optimisation initiatives.

Across the group, despite sector wide declines, Freightways increased market share and maintained pricing that reflected our increases in costs, including wage increases for all of our staff. We have also positioned our brands as either #1 or a fast growing #2 in each niche in which we compete.