Thomas Knudsen succeeded with turning the financially strained logistics firm Toll Group from red to black figures before he stepped down as chief executive to take over as chairman of the board instead.
Thomas Knudsen managed to turn Australian logistics group Toll into a profitable organization before the former Maersk employee stepped down to become chairman of the board at the company, which is headquartered in Singapore.
According to the full-year report, which has just been announced, a financial transition has occurred at the Japanese-owned company.
Toll had a revenue of AUD 7.6bn (USD 5.5bn) and a pre-tax result of AUD 341m, ”a significant increase over the prior year,” reads the financial statement.
“2022 was a very significant year for Toll Group. We divested the loss-making Australian Express business, simplified our operations, and delivered strong growth in our forwarding and logistics operations,” states Knudsen in a comment.
Toll has continued its growth in Asia, which now makes up 38% of the business, but as Knudsen told in an interview with WPO a month ago, the Asian business is supposed to represent an even larger part in the future.
”We would like to grow in order to get a more balanced geographical coverage in our business. We would like Asia to make up more than 50% within 3-4 years,” said the Danish national, pointing to countries such as Vietnam, India and Indonesia as potential areas for expansion.
Looking at Toll’s financial development since Japan Post bought the company in 2015 for AUD 6.5bn, black figures didn’t arrive until 2018 – the same year that Knudsen came onboard – followed by red numbers the next two years. In the whole year alone, which ran until March 2020, Toll booked a deficit in the range of AUD 685m.
