Blue Water Shipping CEO Søren Nørgaard Thomsen remains hopeful about 2020 following the company’s largest-ever annual profit of EUR 25 million last year. “We are dependent on how fast and to what extent the business community gets back to business, but we expect profit to be between 7 and 18 million euros”, he says. 

The Danish freight forwarder achieved sales of 858 million euros last year, which is an increase of 15% compared to 2018. Profit before tax amounted to 25.7 million euros compared to 1.3 million the year before.

The good result was largely driven by Blue Water Group’s Energy & Projects Division which is executing several major logistics contracts related to the extension of the Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan. These projects commenced a few years ago and will run until 2021.

Core activities, such as Reefer Sea, Port Services, Wind Logistics and Marine Logistics, have also contributed positively towards the annual result, while the progress of the general Road, Sea and Air transport continues through optimisations and consolidations of the operation, the company states.

“In recent years, we have not fulfilled our expectations for profit, and we can therefore be very proud of this magnificent result which contributes to the continued development of Blue Water”, says founder Kurt Skov.

2020

Blue Water Shipping has implemented a new business strategy in the second half of 2019 to enhance business processes and optimise operations. This contributes to positive expectations for this year’s annual result, although Covid-19 does create uncertainty, Blue Water Shipping states.

“We finished the first quarter with nice figures, ahead of budget and ahead of last year. But during March, the level of activity dropped in some parts of our business, and as we do not know the time horizon for a normalisation of the world, we are more cautious about this year’s result, which in addition to Covid-19 may be negatively affected if the low oil price continues”, says Thomsen.

Thomsen continues: “As a company, we are well-positioned for handling the current crisis and the opportunities that may present themselves. However, we are dependent on how fast and to what extent the business community gets back to business. This raises some uncertainty about the year’s result which is expected to be 7-18 m EUR.”

The Blue Water Group employs about 1,750 people at 63 offices worldwide. It is headquartered in Esbjerg where it was founded in 1972 by Kurt Skov, who is now the Chairman of the Board. Last year, his daughter Anne Skov joined the company’s ownership by taking over a major shareholding of Kurt Skov Holding, which owns 25% of te Blue Water Group.