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Speaker 1: Heather duplesl one of the biggest delivery companies, Reckons, one

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Speaker 1: of our biggest by the way delivery companies. Reckons, We're

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Speaker 1: coming out the other side of our recession. This is

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Speaker 1: Freightways runs New Zealand, Couriers runs Big Chill. Of course,

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Speaker 1: it's recorded a five point eight percent decrease in its

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Speaker 1: net profit. That's down to about seventy one million dollars.

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Speaker 1: But the company is celebrating the result because it's whether

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Speaker 1: the worst of our economic times. It Reckons, Mark Trow

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Speaker 1: Here is the Freightway CEO.

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Speaker 2: Hey, Mark, Hi, Heather, how are you.

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Speaker 1: I'm very well, thank you. So are you seeing this

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Speaker 1: as actually quite a small drop for how bad things

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Speaker 1: have been?

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Speaker 2: Yes? Yeah, in a word, yes, I think. I don't

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Speaker 2: know that it gets any worse than this, and it's

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Speaker 2: been at this level for a wee while now. So

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Speaker 2: now there's a little bit of light at the end

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Speaker 2: of the tunnel that hopefully asn't a train coming the

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Speaker 2: other way. With some rate cuts here in New Zealand,

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Speaker 2: maybe gradually we can start to see someone proven as

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Speaker 2: we get into next year.

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Speaker 1: What do you mean it doesn't get as bad as this?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think We've tracked our customer activity month or months,

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Speaker 2: day on day for a long time now, and I

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Speaker 2: think we're at at the moment seems to be as

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Speaker 2: bad as it has been through that last eighteen months.

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Speaker 2: We're not seeing it getting any worse. We're not seeing

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Speaker 2: get better, but it's really stable in terms of the

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Speaker 2: volume coming from our customers. So what we would hope

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Speaker 2: is with a little bit of confidence from lower interest

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Speaker 2: rates as we come into next year, that that volume

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Speaker 2: then might pick up.

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon it's going to make a big difference

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Speaker 1: what happened with the ocr last week.

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Speaker 2: I think it'll take maybe ex or so months to

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Speaker 2: wash through. So our pick would be maybe after Christmas,

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Speaker 2: you're starting to see a few green shoots out there, So.

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Speaker 1: You think because I was kind of penning hopes on

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Speaker 1: the fact that just that signal that we are through

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Speaker 1: the worst of it would give some people some confidence

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Speaker 1: to start spending. They don't need to hold for the

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Speaker 1: big rollover on the interest rates and stuff. You don't

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Speaker 1: think that'll happen.

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Speaker 2: I suspect it will take a little while maybe for

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Speaker 2: people to roll over their interest rates, have a few

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Speaker 2: more dollars in their pocket. The tax cuts that we've

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Speaker 2: just had as well, and again it's a small contribution

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Speaker 2: to people to put a little bit more money in

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Speaker 2: their pocket. But my sense, my gut feel, is it

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Speaker 2: might just take six months to wash through to see

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Speaker 2: a little bit more volume ail.

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Speaker 1: So still post the summer holidays before we really start

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Speaker 1: to see a pickup in business.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think so, I mean, Christmas time is a

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Speaker 2: busier time for us, but I don't think it's going

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Speaker 2: to be that much busier than last year. I think

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Speaker 2: we'll ride through that period and then in the new year.

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Speaker 2: I mean some cases it's businesses it might need to

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Speaker 2: invest to grow their capacity, to push out a bit

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Speaker 2: more frase and have a bit more activity. For things

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Speaker 2: like the construction industry here, so we do a lot

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Speaker 2: of a lot of work for people in the construction

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Speaker 2: sector and that sector is really down on the doldrums

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Speaker 2: at the moment. It might take a little while for

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Speaker 2: that sort of sector to flow through with better results.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I suspect it's going to be like we're not

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Speaker 1: talking months, We're probably talking years, aren't we with them?

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Speaker 2: But eventually, essentially we did a huge amount of work

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Speaker 2: for people back in If you remember the COVID days

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Speaker 2: where you couldn't fly anywhere, but you can do up

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Speaker 2: your house and you come off a high of that

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Speaker 2: back and probably twenty twenty two and it's been really muted.

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Speaker 2: But even sectors like that, I suspect maybe over the

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Speaker 2: next six months just start to get a little bit

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Speaker 2: of a lift.

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Speaker 1: Here's the thing, Mark, I mean, if you listen to

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Speaker 1: the likes of I think it was Fitch who said

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Speaker 1: it a few weeks back, we I guess many of

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Speaker 1: us are banking on bouncing out of this and just

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Speaker 1: going back to sort of the hype of the last

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Speaker 1: ten years once we get through the COVID stuff. But

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Speaker 1: they were saying, temper you expectations because the Chinese economy

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Speaker 1: is not doing that well and the recovery is just

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Speaker 1: going to be pretty grinding from here. Is that what

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Speaker 1: you're expecting?

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Speaker 2: Look, I think it'd be slow and steady, but that's

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Speaker 2: all right for us. Slow and steady, and even one

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Speaker 2: percent two percent growth out of our existing customers that

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Speaker 2: feeds our network pretty well, so we would be okay

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Speaker 2: with that. We'll win a bit of new business, we'll

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Speaker 2: attract a few new customers, get our pricing right, You

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Speaker 2: know that won't be the worst outcome.

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Speaker 1: Oh good stuff, Mark, listen, thank you, appreciated, look after yourself.

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Speaker 1: That's Mark trow here Froatway CEO.

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Speaker 2: For more from hither do see Allen Drive.

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