Kuehne + Nagel has seen profits for the first nine months of 2015 rise by 6.7 per cent to 512 million Swiss francs ($532.8 million), helped by improvements in its airfreight business.

The profit was up from 480 million Swiss francs in the same period of 2014 despite turnover falling by 4.4 per cent from 13 billion Swiss francs to 12.4 billion Swiss francs.

In the third quarter, turnover fell by 6.7 per cent to 4.2 billion Swiss francs but profit increased by 11.4 per cent to 186 million Swiss francs.

Kuehne + Nagel chief executive officer, Dr Detlef Trefzger, says: “In the third quarter we further improved our results, especially in seafreight and airfreight … Our strong focus on innovative logistics services and strict cost management enabled growth in profits in a demanding market environment.”

The airfreight division saw its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) increase to 202 million Swiss francs in the first nine months of 2015 from 182 million Swiss francs in the same period of 2014.

This comes despite revenue falling to 4.1 billion Swiss francs from 4.3 billion Swiss francs. Kuehne + Nagel says airfreight volumes increased by 5.1 per cent because of strong demand in the automotive, pharmaceutical, aerospace and perishable industries.

For the company as a whole, EBIT in Europe, the Middle East and Africa fell slightly in the first nine months from 350 million Swiss francs in 2014 to 341 million Swiss francs in 2015. In the Americas, EBIT was up to 147 million Swiss francs from 121 million Swiss francs while Asia Pacific saw EBIT increase to 152 million Swiss francs from 136 million Swiss francs.