SG Holdings' delivery business is handling more parcels and earning less on them. In the six months to September 2026, the segment's operating profit fell 18.0% to ¥24.9bn on revenue up 5.7% to ¥537.4bn, according to the company's semiannual securities report. Parcel volume rose 4.7% to 690mn items.
The group total tells a different story. Consolidated revenue rose 17.6% to ¥920.4bn and operating profit rose 7.5% to ¥41.4bn, a 4.5% margin. The global logistics segment did the lifting: revenue rose 77.1% to ¥247.6bn and operating profit rose 822.8% to ¥6.7bn, helped by the consolidation of Morrison Express, which joined the group in the previous fiscal year. Delivery growth alone does not explain the group's headline numbers. Earlier Tokyo Brief coverage
Where the cost went
The company attributes the delivery decline to higher personnel and outsourcing costs. It cites base-pay increases and higher subcontractor rates to maintain transport capacity. Subcontracting conditions for trunk-line transport, where labor is short, were tougher than assumed at the start of the year, so SG began securing year-end peak capacity early, from the second quarter. Fuel costs and fuel surcharges paid to partner firms also rose with oil prices.
A change in how a delivery subsidiary pays bonuses front-loaded the bonus provision into the first half. SG expects that effect to wash out over the full year.
The pricing milestone
Average unit price improved year on year, the company says, partly because slower growth in cross-border e-commerce changed the mix of parcels. For the cost squeeze, SG plans to revise its filed tariff in January 2027, citing labor shortages and inflation. The report gives no size for the revision. A filed tariff is the published list rate, so the increase actually collected from customers may differ.