Integer.pl Group sales jump as it ramps up parcel terminal business
Polish mail and parcel firm Integer.pl Group saw its revenue swell by 74% last year as the international expansion of its parcel locker business continued. The company, one of the biggest challengers to state-owned Polish Post in its domestic market, reported a consolidated revenue of PLN 604m (EUR 147m) in 2014.
Pre-tax earnings (EBITDA) were PLN 34.83m (EUR 8.47m).
Rafal Brzoska, the Integer.pl Group chief executive, said 2014 had been a “busy year” for his company as it restructured and raised further capital to continue expanding its parcel locker business worldwide.
Parcel machines
Integer.pl Group said it now has 1,100 of its automated parcel machines operating in Poland. Last year saw a 94% year-on-year increase in the number of parcels delivered through the network. The year saw e-commerce firm Allegro partnering with Integer.pl Group to deliver items via the easyPack machines, wihch are equipped with card payment systems.
The company plans to install another 600 machines in Poland.
The Group said it now has more than 4,000 of its parcel machines operating worldwide in various business models. The company and its investment partner PineBridge Investments are aiming to have 12,000 to 16,000 of the machines deployed in Europe by the end of 2016.
The company now claims more than 1,000 machines in the UK, 340 in Russia, 100 in the Czech Republic, 50 in Slovakia, and 80 in Hungary.
Plans are in place to launch 800 machines in Italy by the end of 2015, 900 machines in France by 2015, with partnerships in place to install machines in other European countries. The company also has a partnership with carrier Aramex to deploy machines in the Middle East, and a partnership with Australia Post to deploy 195 machines in Australia. Partnerships also exist with Saudi Post, Iceland Post, Cyprus Post, Estonian Post, Irish parcel carrier Nightline, and Colombia Post (4-72).
The company said it is also beginning to deploy machines in Canada through the InPost Canada unit.
“The volume of parcels in InPost’s Automated Parcel Machine (APM) network grew almost by 100% in Poland in 2014 and, thanks to a strategic partnership with Allegro as well as dynamic growth of parcels volumes, will increase by a further 600 machines in 2015, providing a significant increase in operating capacity,” said Brzoska.
“We are also developing dynamically in foreign markets – the Czech Republic and Slovakia have already reached the break-even point and, in 2015, we forecast break-even for the UK, Italy and Russia.”
The Integer.pl Group CEO added that negotiations are now underway with an investor that will support development of parcel machines in more countries.
InPost
Integer.pl Group said its domestic Polish postal business InPost saw the number of items it handled grow from 240m in 2013 to 300m in 2014, a 25% increase.
The company said the 3,000 service contracts it holds with public and private sector organisations was a 20% increase on the previous year.
During 2014 the company completed acquisition of Postal Group Poland in order to adopt its advanced postal technology, which includes digital registered mail technology — electronic confirmation of acceptance systems. Together with PGP the Group had won an important public sector mail contract, said to be worth nearly PLN 500m (EUR 121.7m) over two years, for the courts and prosecutors’ offices.
“InPost is a matured and well-formed company that, after acquisition of PGP, widely developed its range of activity and is the leader among the private postal operators in Poland,” Brzoska claimed. “InPost and PGP jointly delivered correspondence from courts and prosecutors offices to addressees, moreover, they won numerous public tenders (e.g. the Shared Services Centre and the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund) and tenders in the commercial sector – where together they already serve nearly 3,000 customers.”
