Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
LTL, Last-Mile Businesses Help XPO Record Q1 Profit
May 4,
2017 by Larry Thomas in Economic News, Industry 
Logistics and transportation giant XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO), a major player in furniture transportation and last-mile delivery, recorded a profit of $21.3 million or 16 cents per share in the first quarter, reversing a net loss in last year’s first quarter.
The company said the improved bottom line was due to better margins in both its transportation and logistics segments, and higher operating income in its North American less-than-truckload business.
Worldwide revenue for the quarter ended March 31 totaled $3.54 billion, down slightly from $3.546 billion in last year’s opening quarter. The decline was due largely to the sale of its North American full truckload operations last October.
Revenue from its North American last-mile delivery business totaled $207 million, up 15.7% from $178.9 million in the same quarter last year.
XPO’s less-than-truckload business had revenue of $897.2 million, up 5.9% from $830.5 million in last year’s first quarter.
"We started the year on a strong note by solidly beating our expectations for earnings,” said Bradley Jacobs, chairman and CEO. “In North American less-than-truckload, we increased operating income by a robust 49%, in part by running our line-haul, cross-dock and pickup-and-delivery operations more efficiently. Our market-leading position in e-commerce continued to drive growth in last mile and contract logistics.”
The company reaffirmed its earlier EBITDA projections (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) for 2017 and 2018. The forecast calls for EBITDA of at least $1.35 billion this year and at least $1.575 billion in 2018.