Hermes works on European B2C network
German B2C parcel delivery company Hermes Logistik is working on creating a European network to grow its international business, a senior manager told CEP-Research. It will enter the Austrian market on July 1.
Hermes, with turnover of EUR 1,016 million in 2006, is a subsidiary of Europe’s largest mail-order firm Otto Group, which also owns the parent firms of UK home delivery company Parcelnet and France’s Mondial Relay. Parcelnet recently bought the Redcats courier network while Mondial has announced plans to start operations in Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and Portugal.
The company, which claims a German B2C market share of about 37%, is again developing well this year, with Parcel Shop volumes up by 25% year-on-year as of the end of May, Martin Kreiter, vice president marketing, said in an interview at the Transport Logistic fair in Munich. “We are growing well this year, and are winning new third-party customers,” he commented.
On plans for Austria, he added: “We are ready to start. We have the 1,200 Parcel Shops.” Hermes will initially have about 20% of the Austrian B2C market by delivering Otto Group parcels in the country.
Asked about Hermes’ European expansion plans, Kreiter noted that the Otto Group subsidiaries combined are already Europe’s largest home delivery organisation with 22,000 Parcel Shops. The creation of a European B2C network is “one of the challenges for the next few months,” he said. Although it was not yet clear how this would be structured, “we will need one face to the customer in future”, he stressed.
Kreiter confirmed that Hermes Logistik planned to enter the German mail market once the small letters segment was liberalised as of January 2008. “We know we are losing business because customers take letters and parcels to the post office. If we offer both, then we will win more business.”
Hermes would offer letter services through its network of 13,000 Parcel Shops. Consumers would be able to post letters in blue letterboxes outside the parcel shops. Hermes would definitely not have any delivery staff itself but would provide delivery through partners, he said. TNT Post Germany, in which it has a minority holding, was one possible delivery partner.
