Express Industry Races Ahead in Russia
The express delivery business is booming.
The top two companies on the market, DHL Worldwide and TNT Russia, said Wednesday that their businesses grew 31 percent and 40 percent last year, respectively, although neither would divulge dollar figures.
“This is the highest rate of growth among all 200 countries that TNT operates in and the largest we’ve seen in Russia after the 1998 crisis,” TNT Russia general director Harro van Graafeiland said, adding that growth in 2000 was just 7.5 percent.
As a result of Russia’s dismal postal system, the express courier market is one of the few in Russia in which foreign firms claim a virtual monopoly. According to a Research International report last year, America’s DHL holds half of the market, followed by Amsterdam-based TNT with 19 percent and U.S. companies United Parcel Service and Federal Express with 10 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
TNT attributed the brisk growth rate to a healthier economy and more demand from domestic companies. “Russian companies are more actively ordering domestic delivery services than international destinations, as compared to the last few years,” said TNT marketing and business development manager Maria Korbut.
Irina Krasnopolskaya, head of DHL’s marketing department for Russia and the CIS, said preliminary figures for 2001 indicate a growth rate (rest of article missing)
Market share in Russia
Moscow Times
