Blue Dart in talks with global players for tie-up

Following the break-up with FedEx, Indian logistics major Blue Dart Express is scouting for new partnerships. The company is likely to tie up with a new company when the existing arrangement with FedEx expires on September 30, 2002.
According to Tulsi Mirchandaney, senior vice-president of marketing for Blue Dart, the alliances could be either an exclusive tie-up like the one it currently has with FedEx, or multilateral tie-ups.
He said discussions are currently on with several international players, but a final decision on the partner and the nature of the tie-up would be announced soon.
Currently, the relationship between the two entails revenue sharing on international cargo.
About 80 percent of Blue Dart’s revenue comes from the domestic sector.
Blue Dart has a fleet of three Boeing-737s, and services around 13,000 domestic destinations.
The differences between FedEx and Blue Dart are their varying focus areas. Blue Dart has chalked out a plan to service the South Asian region, especially countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives. FedEx has little or no presence in these regions and does not consider it a thrust area. This led to Blue Dart serving notice in July last year spelling out its intention to discontinue its tie-up with the US firm.