It has been a big news week for Canada's biggest trucking company.
Last week Montreal-based TransForce announced that profits for Q3 were down from 2012; that it was buying Clarke Transport Inc., and Clarke Road Transport Inc., two subsidiaries of Clarke Inc, and finally, that the very profitable company will be shifting some of its priorities to stem losses.
The Clarke deal should close later this year and is expected to generate annual revenues of approximately $190 million. The two acquired entities employ more than 600 staff and independent contractors.
President and CEO Alain Bedard also reported the company's net income this quarter on revenue of $775.1 million was $44 million—$0.45 per share—which is down from $53.8 million, or $0.53 per share, on $761.7 million, in the third quarter of 2012.
Here's what Bedard had to say to shareholders and analysts:
"The profitability of the package and courier (P&C) and Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) segments further improved, as we reap benefits from our constant initiatives to optimize asset utilization and maximize efficiency.
"In P&C, margins from existing operations improved significantly, while we are aggressively proceeding with operational changes at Velocity which still generated a loss during the quarter. Meanwhile, successful asset rationalization in the LTL segment yielded another year-over-year EBIT margin improvement, before gains on asset disposal.
The truckload segment experienced a small decline, while our energy sector experienced a major decrease in EBIT affected mostly by rig moving operations."
