CPL – Spanish CEP operators seek to add value in changing market

The Spanish courier and parcels market faces vital new challenges over the next few years as margins shrink, the integrators strengthen their market share and a raft of new employment legislation is introduced.

This was the clear message sent out by leading representatives of the Spanish industry when they spoke to delegates at yesterday’s final session of the Courier and Parcels Logistics Summit in Barcelona.

“Companies are concentrating their offer to increase their range of services and take on new business lines through mergers, acquisitions and alliances,” Alberto Genescá Boronat, president of the Spanish Association of Messengers (AEM), told delegates.

Growth in the courier segment had averaged about 14 pct between 1997 and 2001, but this had fallen to 8.8 pct between 2002 and 2006 in a market “very close to maturity”. Now operators had to increase added value to the client in the face of falling margins, adjusting their prices, improving quality and offering a wider range of services, Boronat explained.

Fernando Rodríguez Sousa, president of the Spanish Association of Couriers, Aecaf, said the country’s EUR 7 billion parcels market was heading for serious consolidation. “Although there are nearly 5,500 registered courier companies, 57 pct of the market is shared by 10 of them and consolidation will continue to increase,” Sousa said. “The challenge is to improve the management model in a more competitive market with pressure on margins.”

Four new laws coming into force over the next couple of years would have a deep impact on the industry, Sousa said. This involved new regulations governing self-employed workers, adoption of a working time directive, legislation concerning contracts in the transport sector and a new law affecting professional driving licences. This was forcing the industry to revise pick-up and delivery models, he said.

Carlos Rosa Maureta, international unit director with Correos, said postal networks across Europe and the world were growing fast. The E-Parcel Group (EPG), for distribution in the EU, increased the volume of items it carried in 2006 by 18 pct and has grown from nine European postal operators to 21 over the past decade. Similarly, the Kahala Postal Group (KPG), for delivery between the US, Asia and Europe, which Correos joined last year, now covered 31 pct of the world population.

Yves Delmas, CEO of leading parcels carrier Seur GeoPost said the French-Spanish venture was developing successfully in the changing market due to a series of factors. The company was gradually purchasing Seur franchises (it now has eight) across the country, but was keeping on staff and giving them a vested interest in the success of the new joint business. “And we have time,” said Delmas. “There is no calendar for the buying up of the franchises." Seur-GeoPost was achieving double-digit profit growth through exclusive focus on parcels and flexibility. “We are an interfacer, not an integrator,” Delmas added.

Soledad Santiago, commercial vice-president for Iberia Cargo, said Madrid’s Barajas airport was proving Europe’s express gateway to Latin America. Iberia Cargo’s IBExpress service, used by other couriers, was constantly beating records and could now deliver packages and documents in well under 24 hours to most destinations in South and Central America due to the daily or greater frequency of flights between the two continents. “Direct connections also means minimizing the risks of excessive handling,” she pointed out.