GXO CEO Malcolm Wilson is retiring in 2025, four years after he became the contract logistics provider’s first chief exec and led it through its spinoff from XPO Logistics.
Wilson, who had initially been the CEO of XPO’s European division ahead of the August 2021 spinoff, will still lead the Greenwich, Conn.-based company during the executive search process to find his successor.
The expected CEO transition comes as GXO reportedly had been interested in exploring a possible sale of its business. A Bloomberg report late Tuesday ahead of Wilson’s official retirement announcement indicated that the logistics firm is ending the sale process.
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In the wake of the official announcement of Wilson’s departure and the Bloomberg report, GXO’s stock dipped more than 12 percent in Wednesday morning trading.
The warehousing provider never publicly confirmed the recent reports of a potential sale, with Wilson swatting away speculation during a November earnings call.
GXO would not comment on the Bloomberg report to Sourcing Journal, but it didn’t appear there was interest from bigger potential acquirers. Logistics giants like Maersk and DHL had both previously confirmed in their own earnings calls that they would not make a bid for GXO.
“Malcolm’s countless contributions to GXO and its legacy parent XPO span nearly a decade. Under his leadership, GXO has added more than $3 billion of revenue and received global recognitions each year for innovation and workplace culture,” said Brad Jacobs, chairman of the GXO board of directors, in a statement. “Our incoming CEO will inherit a best-in-class management team and strong industry positioning, while Malcolm will embark on a well-deserved retirement. I fully support this decision and wish him all the best.”
Wilson’s tenure as CEO was filled with acquisitions as the Nike and now-Levi Strauss & Co. partner sought to expand its business, increasing overall revenue from $7.9 billion in 2021 to $11 billion in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2024.
The logistics company acquired U.K.-based Clipper Logistics for $1.3 billion in Oct. 2022, strengthening the American establishment’s foothold in Europe. Over the past year, only 28 percent of GXO’s revenue came from U.S. customers, down from the 36 percent of sales generated through that market during 2020. In that same time frame, U.K.’s revenue share ballooned from 25 percent to a current 41 percent.
GXO then acquired e-commerce order fulfillment platform PFSweb for $181 million the next October, before making a splash with a $985 million deal for another U.K.-based logistics services provider, Wincanton.
The latter deal has been a significant source of sales for GXO since its completion in April, with total third-quarter revenue increasing 28 percent year over year to $3.2 billion— dwarfing the company’s organic revenue growth number of 3 percent.
That takeover is still up in the air due to antitrust concerns in the U.K., with the country’s competition watchdog currently probing the acquisition. While GXO initially planned to complete the full integration of Wincanton into its business by early January, Wilson said that process may now be delayed into the second quarter due to the investigation.
Looking ahead, the Wincanton integration and the acceleration of organic growth were expected to be the top focuses for the company in 2025, with GXO chief financial officer Baris Oran saying in the November earnings call that “M&A is not on our short-term agenda.”
It is unclear if a new CEO would impact the logistics services company’s thought process regarding dealmaking in 2025, or the firm’s wider long-term 2027 outlook, which includes goals for organic revenue of $15.5 billion to $16 billion and approximately $1.25 billion to $1.3 billion of adjusted EBITDA.
“Every quarter we have seen an organic growth improvement and that has been supported by our existing facility volumes, but also our investment in our sales and business development capabilities,” said Oran. “We expect that trend to continue into 2025 and onwards. So, we do expect an acceleration of our growth in 2025 compared to 2024. And last year, Q4 was clearly the bottom, and we have been going upwards since then.”
In the Tuesday afternoon announcement, Wilson gave his parting words.
“My time at GXO has been the highlight of my three decades in logistics,” Wilson said. “We have an outstanding organization that embraces new technologies, keeping us at the forefront of the industry. I’m grateful to the team and our customers for their support—and I look forward to working with the board to ensure the company is in excellent hands.”
