GXO is bullish on the direction of the overall freight market, as the contract logistics provider sees progress in the movement of volume within its network.

“We believe we saw the bottom of the inventory cycle in the fourth quarter of last year,” said GXO CEO Malcolm Wilson in a second-quarter earnings call. “We’re beyond that inflection point, and we’re seeing volume trends beginning to improve. At an industry level, e-commerce has returned to sustainable structural growth.”

More from Sourcing Journal

• Pitney Bowes Sells Off, Liquidates Global E-Commerce Segment

• Amazon Moves Up Black Friday Shipping Deadline for Third-Party Sellers

• Air Cargo Shows Strong First Half, With Q4 Peak in Sight

In the second quarter, GXO still faced negative volume comparisons from a year ago, but these comparisons represent an improvement over the year-over-year numbers provided in the 2023 fourth quarter.

“When you look into the underlying volume and network consolidation assumptions, in Q2, clearly, we were negative,” said Baris Oran, chief financial officer of GXO, during the call. “And in Q3, we expect a similar trend and somewhat easing up into Q4, reflecting an easier comp versus the Q4 of last year.”

Major logistics players like UPS, DHL and FedEx have all seen volumes have a similar stabilization in their most recent fiscal quarter as they continue to navigate a freight recession. All have projected that the year-over-year volume improvements will continue into the holiday season.

GXO had a revenue bump of 19 percent year over year to $2.8 billion, up from $2.4 billion in the second quarter of 2023. Organic revenue grew by 2 percent, as much of the revenue came via the company’s $965 million acquisition of U.K.-based logistics services company Wincanton. In a research note, UBS said the 2 percent revenue growth is “indicative of GXO’s business momentum continuing.”

New business contracts at GXO totaled $270 million in the second quarter, with an additional $63 million already signed for 2025.

“We signed more new business in our North American business recently than for a long time,” Wilson said. “I think we’re on target for a record in our North American activity for new business signings.”

Half of the new business wins in the quarter came from outsourcing, said Oran.

“We believe such new contract wins underpin a defensive growth amidst a weaker consumer and weaker freight backdrop,” said the UBS note, with the investment bank saying that GXO is “poised for further revenue expansion within the consumer market and that visibility toward peak season is increasing.”