WiseTech, the company that owns the software package CargoWise, has announced record profits for the past year. The Australian based company saw its revenue jump by 29% year-on-year to AUS$816m for the financial year 2023, although this was flattered by acquisition, with underlying growth being 21%. The core CargoWise product saw revenue from sales jump 30% excluding the effect of acquisitions.
EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation and Amortisation) was up 21%year-on-year, at $385.7m. WiseTech boasts an EBITDA margin of 47%. Profit before tax was up 19% year-on-year.
The key to WiseTech’s success is the increasing universality of the CargoWise package amongst certain types of logistics service providers. Once largely based around its attractiveness to small and medium freight forwarders, over the past couple of years large logistics service providers have been a particularly successful area of sales for CargoWise. For example, over 2023-2024 CargoWise has been rolled-out by Kuehne and Nagel at a global level and FedEx Trade Networks have indicated that they intend to adopt the system. This, combined with a deepening of the product offering and price increases have driven-up profits. WiseTech say that CargoWise has been or is in the process of being “rolled out” to “11 of the Top 25 Global Freight Forwarders”.
WiseTech has also expanded by acquisition. In particular it has sought to expand the reach of CargoWise through the purchase of Envase Technologies, Blume Global and Matchbox Exchange, which is a container management and optimisation platform. These companies offer the potential to expand into the management of assets beyond CargoWise’s core sea and air freight markets, particularly in North America.
The growth of the CargoWise package has been remarkable over the past twenty years. From small package for freight-forwarders it is close the being the standard operational platform for freight forwarding. Clearly the objective of WiseTech is to expand this near dominance into other related logistics markets.
Source: Ti Insight
Author: Thomas Cullen
Supply chain strategists can use GSCi – Ti’s online data platform – to identify opportunities for growth, support strategic decisions, help them stay abreast of industry trends and development, as well as understand future impacts on the industry.
Visit GSCI subscription to sign up today or contact Michael Clover for a free demonstration: [email protected] | +44 (0) 1666 519907
