News / CH Robinson sees revenue fall in Q1, but we are on the right road, says CEO

© Piotr Trojanowski

CH Robinson experienced a near 40% surge in ebit over the three months to April, reaching $177m, despite seeing revenues fall more than 8% year on year.

Group revenue for the first quarter hit $4bn, 8.3% less than in the same period last year, as its global forwarding unit posted a 9.8% dip, to $775m, and its far larger North American surface transportation (NAST) operations recorded a 4.4% revenue decline, to $2.8bn.

Even so, Q1 divisional income from operations at NAST jumped 31.9% to $143.6m, with Global Forwarding’s up 36.1% to $43m.

CEO Dave Bozeman said: “We’re not waiting for a market recovery to improve our financial results, and the strategies that the Robinson team is executing are relevant in any market environment.

“In NAST, we outgrew the market in both truckload and less-than-truckload, while expanding gross margins and improving productivity – both year over year and sequentially.”

Mr Bozeman added that the company had continued to win new business and was working to “optimise our expenses through further increases in productivity”.

As to the revenue shortfall, the company pointed to the sale of its European surface transportation business – a market that has struggled this year – as a key factor. And CH Robinson’s earning announcement noted that North American truckload activities had also seen lower volumes over the first three months, down about 1% year on year, and ocean pricing had also dropped compared with 2024.

Looking ahead, Mr Bozeman said, uncertainty provoked by new tariffs and “fluid trade policies” had led many customers to adopt a “wait-and-see” approach.

But he remained confident that the strategy that resulted in the ebit upturn remained the right course, noting: “While certainly not immune to global market dynamics, we’re confident in our strategy and our people. Nothing about the current environment changes that.”

Read Loadstar Premium analysis on Q1 25 numbers, value and redundancy risk here.