TNT sells bulk of French logistics unit
Dutch mail, parcel and supply chain operator TNT is to shed most of its struggling French logistics unit three years after it was acquired.
The European Union cabotage system and the French 35-hour working week took most of the blame for the unit’s problems.
Around 60percent of TNT’s French logistics activities have been sold and the rest will be sold in the next month.
French haulage and logistics giant Norbert Dentressangle has snapped up the majority of TNT’s contract logistics activities and part of the transport activities of French subsidiary TNT Logistics Holdings SAS. Price details were not revealed.
Jose Driessen, a TNT spokeswoman, said the French market was ‘very specific’ in that, contrary to most European units, transport accounted for 60percent of its activities and logistics 40percent.
Reasons for the French arm’s difficulties were mixed but the entry of new EU countries had led to an influx of cheaper east European drivers.
France’s 35-hour working week had also made French employees less competitive, she added.
The Dentressangle acquisition includes the businesses of Aixor, Cemga, Copal, Nord Mendy, the Clermont-Ferrand site of Nicolas and shares of Les Routiers Francais and Barco.
TNT had already announced that offers had been received for most of the remainder of the transport business of the French logistics business unit and said discussions were continuing.
These sales are believed to be management buyouts and would be concluded before the end of the year.
Ms Driessen said some of the French companies had made a profit during the past few years but she declined to give details.
As previously disclosed, the expected negative financial impact relating to the sale of the French logistics business unit is to be up to EUR140m (USD183m) pre-tax and this will largely be booked this year. TNT branding would be removed from the facilities before next October 31.
Neither the French Express business unit of TNT nor its French Freight Management business are involved in or affected by this deal, the company stated.
A deal announced in April when SNCF, the state-owned French railway company, awarded TNT Logistics France a six-year con- tract for the management of spare parts for its TGV high-speed trains, locomotives and railcars, would stand.
This contract is worth EUR80m and operations will start next year.
