New markets to open up for GeoPost
A road-air service connecting Turkey with destinations across Europe in two to three days represents just the begin of GeoPost’s ambitions in the region.
Launching a Joint Venture with Yurtiçi Kargo in Istanbul last week, Claud Béglé, CEO of GeoPost northern Europe, said a middle market was emerging between highpriced integrator services and traditional road parcel deliveries offered by companies such as DPD, the pan-European network 85% owned by GeoPost.
Yurtiçi is Turkey’s largest domestic parcel operator with a 40% share of the market. It has more than 500 offices and handles 140,000 parcels a day.
The international express market is under-developed in the country and Béglé predicted growth of at least 10% per year.
Officially, the Joint Venture – in which GeoPost holds 51% – is saying it wants a cautious 10% share of the market within three years, but Béglé expects much more thanks to a new model which will undercut typical integrator rates by a third.
Parcels and documents from around Turkey will be flown to Istanbul to be consolidated daily and flown to Frankfurt where they will enter the DPD network.
“Initially, we are booking space with Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, but as volumes grow we want to operate a dedicated aircraft, ” Béglé said.
Geopost’s sister company in the La Poste group, Chronopost, can take care of urgent air shipments and partners with FedEx for intercontinental traffic.
A pure road service could also be offered once customs clearance licences are in place. Freight forwarders currently dominate this sector, but GeoPost–Yurtiçi would be able to offer a faster four- to five-day solution, he said.
GeoPost is keen to build its presence in the Balkan countries, including Bulgaria and Romania from next year, but the real prize for the Turkish JV is access to emerging markets in the Middle East and Asia.
Béglé said the partners wanted to explore opportunities in the CIS, Syria, Iran and Iraq.
A close personal relationship developed between GeoPost and Yurtiçi early in their negotiations and Béglé told IFW that partnership was a better approach than acquisition or merger.
Rival Deutsche Post’s merger efforts in Turkey have encountered problems, he claimed.
DPD had increased volumes by 5-6% this year, well ahead of overall market growth, he said, and has seen a 20% improvement in profits.
GeoPost-Yurtiçi general manger Ziya Gündüz said Yurtiçi had achieved many firsts in Turkey.
Parent group Arikanli has been established 21 years in the logistics market and, earlier this year, began a partnership with Tibbett and Britten.
