Consumer deliveries and international business to drive German CEP market growth

The German courier, express and parcels (CEP) market is likely to grow only moderately in the 4% – 5% range over the next few years. International business will continue to grow well while consumer deliveries will generate the bulk of new volumes in the domestic sector. Those are the key findings of the newly-published “CEP Market Fact Sheet Germany” from CEP-Research. The in-depth report also contains detailed market and competitor figures, profiles of the ten leading operators, and a comparative overview of their products.

Germany reinforced its status as Europe’s largest CEP market with total revenues of just over EUR 9.2 billion in 2005, the latest report by the Hamburg-based market research company revealed. The deferred parcels segment, accounting for over 60% of market revenues, grew faster than the express sector. Confirming the recent trend towards more online-generated parcels business, the B2C/C2C (or “consumer deliveries”) segment has grown to 32% of the market. Domestic business accounted for about 75% of market revenues. “We are now expecting a 4.6% increase for the overall market in 2006, with the B2C/C2C segment generating somewhat higher growth,” commented Robert Thyssen, CEP-Research manager.

In its medium-term forecast, CEP-Research predicted that the German market will grow moderately by 4.4% a year to reach total revenues of over EUR 11.4 billion in 2010. International growth will outpace domestic market growth. Key factors driving additional volumes will be the emergence of Central and Eastern Europe as an important regional import and export market, and rising international trade with Asia. While competition in the B2B sector will intensify, domestic market growth is likely to be mostly generated by increasing demand in the B2C and C2C segments.

The “CEP Market Fact Sheet Germany” also contains detailed market share figures for the ten leading express and parcel companies, broken down by segment into express/deferred, international/domestic, and B2B/B2C/C2C. These figures show that the German market remains relatively fragmented, particularly in the express, domestic and B2B segments.

In terms of overall market shares, DHL remains the clear market leader ahead of DPD, Hermes, UPS, GLS and TNT. There is tight competition in the express segment where the four leading operators all have market shares in the 12% – 16% range. The international segment is led by DHL, TNT and UPS, while DHL, DPD and Hermes dominate the domestic and deferred market segments. Hermes, specialising in home deliveries, has grown fast over the last few years and won market share from DHL in the B2C/C2C segments.

“DHL is still the market leader in all segments but is facing strong competition in many areas,” explained Thyssen. “Competitors are expanding their domestic retail networks to target small businesses and consumers, while extending their European delivery networks to profit from the rising international volumes. Competition is likely to intensify further over the next few years.”

The report also contains profiles of the ten leading players in the German express and parcels market, and details their diverse products. These are then compared in terms of market segments. Other sections include overviews of the German economy and the country’s overall logistics sector.

* The “CEP Market Fact Sheet Germany” is targeted at strategic decision-makers, sales executives and operational managers in international and regional express and parcel companies, as well as the wider transport and logistics industry and other interested parties. The 28-page report can be ordered online under www.cep-research.com. An introductory price of EUR 495.00 applies for orders received by February 16, 2007. The price thereafter is EUR 550.00.