Greek CEP market growing strongly
The Greek courier, express and parcel service market (CEP) is growing at a breath-taking pace: according to a study by the Icap research institute the annual growth rate for the CEP service providers in the Greek market between 1991 and 2001 reached 33%. Last year the Greek CEP sector, in which there are around 220 companies, generated total sales of EUR 188 million.
Forecasts published by Icap indicated that the upward trend can be expected to hold for the Greek CEP companies in general for this and next year, albeit at a decidedly lower rate than has been the case for the last thirteen years. The estimated growth rate for this year is around 18%.
The four CEP giants FedEx, DHL,TNT and UPS with their international presence generated the ‘lion‘s share‘ of sales, reporting a total of EUR 35 million. This is especially the case with DHL, itself a subsidiary of Deutsche Post, clearly the market leader in Greece as it alone controls 60% of the Greek domestic market. Other domestic market leaders in this sector include companies like ACS and Speed Air. Alongside these privately run enterprises there is also the state owned Post Elta with its subsidiary Elta Express, which entered the CEP market in the year 2000.
