YRC's Welch: 'This turnaround still has legs'

With the best quarter during his time at the helm of YRC Worldwide Inc. under his belt, CEO James Welch didn’t take much time to celebrate. Instead, he started thinking about consistent performance in the next quarter.


On Thursday, Welch was in Boston giving a presentation at a transportation conference hosted by New York-based Cowen & Co. There, he gave an update on the company’s improved performance and fielded questions about YRC and his read on the industry.  Here’s a quick look at his comments:

Searching for consistency

Welch, who has led the Overland Park-based company out of serious trouble since he joined in 2011, said he didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about the company’s second quarter. He was focused on bringing about consistent performance for the rest of the year. YRC suffered wild swings while it tackled debt refinancing, labor negotiations and other big issues, but he said the company finally is starting to find some of that consistency.

Through half of 2015, YRC is profitable. That’s a huge accomplishment for a company that many wrote off before Welch took the CEO job. Although he couldn’t say exactly how things are going in the third quarter — YRC is expected to release those results in late October — he expects the company will start to show some of that consistent performance.

Welch attributed that to YRC's focus on moving more profitable freight and its steady reorganization of its freight network. The network was not properly integrated when predecessors Yellow and Roadway merged, he said, and lingering issues have cost the company since 2009. The summer, Welch said, was the first he’s witnessed where YRC did not suffer from some kind of network issues.

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