FedEx CEO predicts company will overtake UPS in next few years

FedEx CEO and founder, Fred Smith, has predicted his company will overtake UPS in scale and revenue over the next couple of years.

Speaking to Bloomberg, he said: “I will say to you unequivocally: In the next two or three years, I’m firmly of the belief we will pass UPS in terms of size and be the largest by-revenue transportation and logistics [company].”

FedEx has faced setbacks in recent years due to the TNT cyberattack, trade war uncertainty, and a dwindling relationship with Amazon, which has steadily morphed into a competitor. While UPS shares rose by 20% in 2019, FedEx’s dropped 6.3%.

Credit: VanveenJF

However, Smith suggested that the company will get ahead by positioning itself as anti-Amazon, and allying itself with brick-and-mortar retailers.

“We came to this fork in the road that we had to ally with one side of the other,” he told Bloomberg. “[Retailers] want to become more adept in the e-commerce space, and we intend to allow them to do that.”

UPS, meanwhile, is staying close to Amazon “as long as there’s a mutually beneficial relationship”, according to CEO David Abney.

Source: Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal