Integer.pl expanding operations in Czech Republic and Ukraine

Poland’s Integer.pl Group is expanding its automated parcel terminal network in the Czech Republic, and has also been winning new unaddressed mail contracts in the Ukraine. The company – through its InPost brand – is in the middle of ambitious plans to roll out 16,000 of its self-service automated parcel terminals across Europe over the next few years, backed by a EUR 300m investment programme.

Yesterday it said installation has begun for the first 100 machines in the Czech Republic, which should be in place by March 2013.

The machines allow consumers to buy products online and instead of taking a day off work to receive them at home, they can have parcels delivered into a secure parcel locker they can then access 24 hours a day.

InPost said it should have 30 of the parcel terminals up and running by the end of 2012 in the Czech Republic, and early next year 70 more will spring up in Prague, Brno, Pardubice, Zlín, Ostrava and 14 other cities.

The company said ecommerce now accounts for 4% o the Czech Republic retail market, with its value currently around EUR 1.32bn and set to grow on average 4.1% a year over the next few years.

About 60% of Czechs use the Internet, with about a third of those users currently shipping online. Mobile shopping is one of the fastest growing areas of retail activity, it added.

“The Czech Republic can boast a rapidly growing ecommerce market,” said Rafał Brzoska, the Integer.pl CEO. “It also has the potential for the development of modern services, which gives us an interesting target for further expansion.”

InPost is assuming its network of parcel terminals in the Czech Republic will be “heavily subsidised” for the first three years, before breaking even.

The company, which already operates around 600 machines in Poland, Russia and the Ukraine, is also currently expanding its network in neighbouring Slovakia.

Ukraine

In the Ukraine, Integer.pl Group is in the process of deploying 250 of its parcel terminals at the moment, with 50 set to be in place by the end of 2012, including 20 in Kiev.

However separately, the company has also been growing its unaddressed mail business in the Ukraine, picking up three new customer contracts.

The company has signed a contract with one of the largest ecommerce merchants selling telecommunications equipment in the Ukraine, ALLO, and has also expanded its partnership with electronics retailer Foxtrot. A third contract continues its service for the supermarket chain BILLA.

Integer.ua distributes about 4.5m leaflets each month in the Ukraine, and says its new contracts will see volumes grow by 50m a year as well as expanding areas in which leaflets will be delivered.

Integer will be investing EUR 3m in its local infrastructure to support the new contracts.

Brzoska said with the Foxtrot deal his company would become the “first and only” unaddressed mail distribution company providing “comprehensive and geographically extensive” services based on its own resources and logistics system.

He said: “Our plans concerning the Ukrainian unaddressed mail market and the particular chains operating there are very challenging.

The Integer.pl CEO added that his company intended to grow its relationship with Ukrainian pharmacies in order to further grow its presence and become “a leader of the Ukrainian unaddressed mail marked within the next 18 months.”

Integer.ua has been operating in the Ukrainian unaddressed mail market since 2008, delivering about 120 tons of advertising materials each year, including BonPrix catalogues.