Kuehne + Nagel recently held a performance meeting. The cost-cutting and efficiency-boosting plan they initiated last autumn has already resulted in the layoff of 2,000 employees, and they have made it clear that there will be no further layoffs due to this plan in the second and third quarters.

Chief Financial Officer Markus said that SFr30m was saved in the first quarter of this year, which was more than expected. The annual target is to save SFr200m, and now "it's already past the halfway mark".

Sounds good, but he also mentioned that things might not go smoothly in the future. Labor costs have been rising and inflation hasn't stopped. The savings effect in the second quarter might slow down a bit.

And the EBIT in the first quarter was 60 million Swiss francs less than last year. Although costs have decreased, profits have not actually increased. The management also admitted that this improvement was achieved by saving money, rather than by improving the business.

There's a small detail - they specifically emphasized that the team serving small and medium-sized customers has basically remained unchanged. CEO Stefan Paul directly stated, "Kuehne + Nagel will not lay off business personnel, especially in the area of small and medium-sized customers." Perhaps they are trying to stabilize market confidence.