News / 'Strong' first half for ID Logistics as it continues its 'growth momentum'

Photo: ID Logistics

French pure-play contract logistics operator ID Logistics posted a 16% year-on-year gain in sales in the first half, recording revenues of €1.76bn ($2.05bn).

It was accompanied by a 15.2% rise in Ebitda, to hit €267m, as well as a more modest 3.7% increase in Ebit, to €65.8m.

“In the first half of 2025, ID Logistics continued its growth momentum and posted further improvement in its financial indicators,” said CEO Eric Hemar.

“The opening of Canada, the group’s nineteenth country, confirms the strong appeal of our model to our major customers and their resilience in the current environment.

“The balanced geographical distribution of our business on both sides of the Atlantic strengthens our commitment to further growth,” he added.

At the beginning of 2025, Mr Hemar and his management team expected to open around 20 new sites, and this appears to have been expanded.

But according to analysts at Bernstein, while the opening of new facilities is expected to boost revenues it is unlikely – due to the extended lifetime of contract logistics customer-shipper partnerships – to have the same positive effect on the company’s profits.

“After 14 new contract launches in H1 25 (vs 14 in H1 24 and 26 in FY24), ID Logistics now points to a handful more project starts than thought at the beginning of the year,” wrote Bernstein analyst Phillippe Lorrain. “While this is beneficial to sales, it also limits the Ebit margin expansion potential.

“Indeed, it is worth keeping in mind that if new contract launches meaningfully exceed the level of circa-20 indicated earlier this year, ID Logistics’s Ebit margin is likely to be stable year on year, as contract margins typically feature a ‘J’ curve profile, with start-up losses in the early months before the contract matures, and breakeven is reached about 18 months after the contract start,” he added.

In terms of revenue, ID’s home market of France – on which it has been actively reducing its dependence over the past few years – saw sales increase 15%, and the country now brings in 27% of group income.

The ‘rest of Europe’ region grew 11.8% in revenue, to account for 47% of group income, while the US grew 32.7%, to account for 18%.

While Mr Hemar noted the new Canada site, its most recent opening was in the UK, at Sherburn (pictured above), where the company opened its second facility on Tuesday to “serve as a dedicated hub for a major global e-commerce player”.

UK MD Stuart Evans said: “This launch reflects our continued investment in infrastructure, innovation, and customer-centric logistics that meet the evolving needs of the digital marketplace.”

At a group level, Mr Lorraine said, the first-half performance was “strong”, adding: “The pace of new contract launches continues to be good.

“ID Logistics looks well on track to reach consensus sales targets, while consensus Ebit should remain virtually unchanged.

“At this stage, we do not see any significant downside risk to estimates so far and flag that, should ID Logistics deliver more growth than expected, this should come at the expense of its operating margins in the short term,” he said, adding that with the net debt:Ebitda ratio at 0.9x, there was still room for suitable takeovers.

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