DHL is ‘here to stay‘ in New Zealand
DHL’s global chief Uwe Doerken has been visiting New Zealand to rally the troops and remind competitors that the Tasman belongs to DHL.
“We’re a very important player on the transtasman and we intend to keep it this way,” he said after a presentation by the company’s regional sales team in Queenstown.
The Deutsche Post unit, which runs its own aircraft between Australia and New Zealand, faces increasing competition from local companies.
Toll Holdings has express delivery businesses in Australia and has expanded to New Zealand. New Zealand-based Mainfreight has operations in Australia.
DHL ran the ruler over Australian express freight company Star Track Express, as did Toll, before it was sold to Qantas and Australia Post in December for a hefty A$750 million ($844 million).
Sometimes you had to have the courage to say no to acquisitions, Doerken said.
DHL, the biggest player in Europe, has announced a US$200 million ($285 million) expansion into China and is taking on UPS and FedEx in the US domestic market.
The global express parcel and logistics markets are growing and changing as the line blurs between international and domestic players.
“It is a trend now that the market is coming of age that domestic is becoming more important,” Doerken said.
“New Zealand is an example of an economy where people have the global perspective and go for global reach _ and that is the type of customer we target.”
The New Zealand domestic express package market, dominated by New Zealand Post and Freightways, is fast-growing.
Doerken said global courier, light parcel and express freight markets were also growing rapidly.
“We’re in a quite fortunate situation that our base business is growing and more large companies are shifting in-house logistics activity to professional players.
“We think for the next 10 to 20 years there is going to be a continuous above-average growth in the logistics solutions markets.”
Copyright © 2004 New Zealand Herald
