TNT Post accelerates expansion in Germany
TNT Post announced it has been granted approval by the German Cartel authorities to take over Germany’s market leader in mail consolidation, PostCon Deutschland AG. TNT Post also announced it has expanded its own delivery network with another three businesses in the German federal states of Berlin-Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Lower Saxony. This reinforces TNT Post’s position as the number one challenger in the German market for delivering addressed mail.
In 2006 TNT Post expects its revenues to increase to EUR 200 million. “TNT Post aims to increase its share of the German addressed mail market to about 10per cent within the next five years,” says TNT Post Germany Managing Director Mario Frusch, “making us the biggest competitor for Deutsche Post AG.” The company also announced to have taken majority stakes in two regional postal services providers: Turbo P.O.S.T. (based in Neuruppin, near Berlin), Trias (Osnabrück), and the takeover of Rheinland Brief (Viersen, near Mönchengladbach). According to Frusch more acquisitions and/or joint ventures with strong regional partners are expected to be announced the coming months. The expansions increase TNT Post’s coverage of Germany to more than 90per cent, bringing it closer to its aim of serving 100per cent of German households in the course of next year.
PostCon, which is based in Berlin, pre-sorts 1.3 million items of addressed mail each day according to postcode regions for delivery nationwide. PostCon’s client base currently comprises about one thousand German companies, including half the blue-chip companies listed in the DAX index and other major customers such as Tchibo, Philips, Bosch, and the Merck pharmaceuticals group. PostCon operates thirteen highly efficient sorting centres throughout Germany and has 300 employees. TNT Post has two modern sorting centres in Essen and Frankfurt. According to Frusch, “Taking over PostCon means that – after Deutsche Post AG – we now have by far the densest and most up-to-date network of sorting centres in the country, giving us the basis we need for rapid growth once the postal monopoly has been abolished. We now have an infrastructure that will allow us to double the number of items we process.”
Turbo P.O.S.T. currently serves about a 1,000 commercial customers in the Berlin/Brandenburg area, employing 250 people. Trias has some 200 employees and covers the whole of the Osnabrück area. By acquiring Rheinland Brief, TNT Post has rounded off its already dense network in North Rhine-Westphalia, and it now covers almost all of the Lower Rhine area. With 80 employees, Rheinland Brief covers large parts of the Viersen district up to the Dutch border.
