DHL parcel lockers to be installed in Finland’s K-Group stores
DHL Express and the K-Group (Kesko) have signed an agreement which will see between 250 and 300 DHL service points set up at food shops and home improvement stores across Finland. “We want to offer our customers a wide range of services and make shopping and daily life easier for them,” said Tommi Kasurinen, Vice President for finance, store sites and logistics of Kesko’s home improvement and speciality goods trade. “Our partnering with the international DHL will bring the world closer to our customers. Starting already in a few weeks’ time, parcels transported by DHL can be conveniently picked up in connection with shopping with us.”
Peter Ervasalo, Managing Director of DHL Express Finland, added: “The K-Group’s wide retail store network provides excellent opportunities to offer private customers new service options at locations where they shop anyway and make their transactions with us even more easier.”
In the first stage of the roll-out, parcel lockers and service points will be set up at K-food stores and K-rauta stores in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Lahti, Lappeenranta, Oulu, Tampere, Turku and Vaasa.
The first yellow parcel lockers will be set up in the K-Group stores during September-October and the first service points during the rest of the year.
By the end of 2015, there will be some 30 lockers ready to receive parcels. At the service points, customers can both receive and send parcels. By the end of next year, the two companies anticipate that DHL Express services will be available at some 100 locations. By end of the 2017, they expect that the network will extend to around 250-300 locations. Enticingly, the companies added that: “Kesko’s international operations enable corresponding cooperation to be launched also in other countries in the future.”
In the initial stages, DHL parcel lockers will receive both international and domestic parcels shipped via DHL Express. In the next stage, it will be possible to send parcels through the parcel lockers, too. At DHL Service Points, both options will be available.
