European parcel network Eurodis achieves 25% growth

Europe’s parcel and palletised goods distribution network Eurodis achieved a 25% year-on-year growth in shipments in 2010. The network, a consortium of partner delivery companies, said much of the growth came from British company UK Mail and French company Sernam joining the alliance.

And, as it launched a new central Eurodis website on Friday, the company said it was now expecting similar growth in 2011.

Carsten Siebe, Managing Director of Eurodis GmbH, which has its head office in Weinheim, Germany, said that the addition of UK Mail and Sernam to the network had proved central to the “recession-defying” growth.

He also suggested a new shareholder structure for Eurodis, with delivery company partners established as shareholders, had helped propel the network’s growth, along with a new IT platform allowing “swift and seamless” data exchange.

“Firstly we implemented a new powerful shareholder structure in 2010, secondly we established a new IT-platform and thirdly we gained strong cooperation partners,” Siebe said.

The Eurodis network now spans 34 European countries, with partners able to transport shipments ranging from one-kilo parcels up to 800kg pallets throughout the network in a continuous process.

Birmingham-based UK Mail and Paris-based Sernam officially joined the Eurodis network in June 2010, fully integrating their operations into the system by October. UK Mail is now the network’s UK shareholder with exclusive responsibility for providing collection and delivery services for the UK and Ireland, with Sernam the equivalent for France.

The company has a national network of 50 depots and more than 3,500 vehicles, handling around 17m items each day on average from more than 2,000 customers.

The Eurodis network has now cemented its identity in the eyes of customers with a new central website and updated logo. Previously, the network had relied on information relayed via its partners’ individual websites.

The new centralised approach gives customers access to all of the Eurodis partners and available services, it said.

UK Mail chief executive Guy Buswell, who is also vice president of the Eurodis supervisory board, said: “Since the power of a network is the result of the sum of individual partners, a single website and focal point of information for all services makes perfect sense.”