Dutch parcel delivery company General Logistics Systems Belgium N.V. (GLS) has opened its 50th parcel office in Austria, the company said on September 16, 2005.
A total 450 more offices are planned, 40 of them in the short-term. Of the 50 offices 30 are integrated in retail chains and the remaining 10 are in GLS depots.
The company is assessing the possibility of opening offices in filling stations.
Read MoreDeutsche Post is set to announce an agreed takeover of Exel on Monday that values the UK logistics company at about GBP3.6bn (USD6.5bn) and could create the world’s biggest logistics group. The German group was holding a supervisory board meeting on Friday to approve the deal, according to people close to the situation. Exel board members are due to convene on Sunday to agree to the terms of the deal. Deutsche Post is offering a mix of cash and shares that values Exel at around GBP12.40 a share – considered to be at the higher end of expectations. The shares component will be 25-30 per cent. The German group is also proposing cost synergies of EUR200m (USD244m) a year. John Allan, chief executive of Exel, will be made head of the enhanced logistics division which will be run out of Bracknell in the UK. He has also been offered a place on the management board.
Read MoreConsumer watchdog Postwatch has urged Postcomm to strengthen its stance on Royal Mail’s four-year price control scheme, reinforcing the DMA (UK)’s criticism of quality of service proposals. Postwatch’s response to the regulator’s proposal has questioned a number of issues, including Royal Mail’s flexibility in rebalancing its prices by zones, removing products from the controls and changing its structure. It believes Royal Mail has been given too much freedom to adjust its prices. Although Postcomm has attempted to improve quality of service, Postwatch believes that by grouping mail products together, the scheme will be weakened, and urges an alternative.
Read MoreDeutsche Post, the German national postal services provider, has suffered another legal defeat in its dispute over the use of the word ‘Post’ by rivals, such as Regiopost. The former monopolist said that the vast majority of people in Germany associated the term ‘Post’ with Deutsche Post and that other companies’ use of this term could lead to confusion. The regional court in Frankenthal yesterday rejected Deutsche Telekom’s complaint against Regiopost.
Read MoreIn Spain, the Spanish competition authority, the SDC, has closed the case on postal services provider Correos for abusing its market power, following Correos’ commitment to refrain from manipulating the market by charging below-cost prices to major clients. The original proceedings against Correos were opened in 2002, when the Spanish postal employers’ association, Asempre, accused Correos of entering into contracts with major clients, such as Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Spain’s second-largest bank, and Catalan savings bank La Caixa, containing heavy discounts resulting from cross-subsidisation.
Read MoreTNT NV said it hopes to expand its express parcel services with China Post and develop a new partnership in its mail division to service a planned national direct marketing operation. TNT chief executive officer Peter Bakker told XFN-Asia that he believes that express or parcel freight operations have the greatest growth potential in China for the Dutch company, which provides logistics, express and mail services. ‘The biggest opportunity will be in express operations, the parcel freight operations,’ he said in an interview, predicting it will eventually overtake the firm’s current business leader — logistics – in importance. TNT’s express service in China was a stand-out performer in the group’s interim results for the second quarter 2005, growing at over 27 pct compared to 12.8 pct recorded for express services across the rest of the world excluding Europe. Bakker said that until now the company has not had its own international parcel service for China.
Read MoreParcel traffic in the Czech Republic grows by some 14 percent a year as companies delivering parcels handle about 150,000 units a day, CTK learnt in a poll of the companies today. Annual sales from this activity reach an estimated Kc4-5 billion a year. DPD chief executive Daniel Mares said parcel traffic among companies prevailed as some 60 percent of Czech companies have parcels delivered. Abroad, the rate is about 90 percent.
Read MoreRoyal Mail will be able to withstand any loss of the delivery market it faces when competition is opened up, a senior member of the postal watchdog claimed yesterday. The UK’s biggest mail company has voiced fears that it could be hit hard by proposals by the industry regulator, Postcomm, for a cap on stamp charge rises. Postcomm’s chief executive, Sarah Chambers, said she was convinced the universal service obligation to deliver to all addresses for the same stamp price meant that rural deliveries would not suffer from the effects of competition. But Royal Mail said Postcomm should not forget the extent to which remote and rural communities in Scotland depended on the company. Ms Chambers was speaking exclusively to the Press and Journal before she held meetings with business groups, Enterprise Minister Nicol Stephen and a group of MSPs.
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