Freightways recoups fuel costs to grow revenue, earnings

Thomas Manch

Senior journalist

28 Oct, 2026 11:21pm3 mins to read

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Big Chill Distribution is one of Freightways’ companies. The group’s shareholders met on Thursday.

Freightways has opened the 2027 year with revenue and earnings growth, as it recoups higher fuel costs and wins market share.

“Good news is, despite all those headwinds, your business is still performing really creditably,” chief executive Mark Troughear has told shareholders.

The freight, parcels and logistics company held
its annual general meeting in Auckland on Thursday morning, after a 2026 year in which it reported 13.5% revenue growth but little earnings margin growth thanks to the effects of the Iran war.

Creditable performance

Speaking to the company’s first quarter performance for 2027, Troughear said the backdrop “really is one where fuel prices fluctuated a bit, but remained at elevated levels”.

“In trucking language, and our courier language, it was bloody expensive.”

Recouping the increased fuel cost through a surcharge to customers meant revenue in the first quarter was elevated, up 17.6% to $408.3m, compared to the same quarter in 2026.

But this meant costs were also up, Troughear said.

Nonetheless, the company’s earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (ebita) were up 12.9% on the prior first quarter, at $50m.

Net profit after tax (npat) was up 12%, at $26.2m.

New Zealand growth, Australia flat

Revenue growth was also aided by Victorian-based business VT Freight Express (VTFE), which Freightways acquired in a transaction that completed on January 30.

This business contributed 9% of the 20% revenue growth recorded in the company’s express package and business mail category.

For the 2027 first quarter, express package volumes were up 2.9% in New Zealand, compared to the prior period.

Much of this, 2.6%, came from market share gains.

“That’s a bit less than we would have expected before the war in the Middle East commenced,” Troughear said.

Item volume was flat in Australia, where economic conditions were “gloomier” than in the recent past.

Shredding tobacco

A “bit of a boom area” for the information management division – which had experienced a slowdown – was the destruction of hard drives, computers and servers, and the recycling of their byproducts, Troughear said.

The company’s Shred-X business, which had been “right-sized” in the 2026 year, was shredding contraband tobacco seized by the Australian Border Force “like nobody’s business”.

The information management division had revenue of $63.9m for the first quarter of 2027, up 5.6% on the prior first quarter.

Ebita was up 17.5% at $9.4m.

At the meeting, shareholders were asked to re-elect Peter Kean as director and to authorise the fixing of auditor remuneration.

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