Target Express has entered into a partnership with Stolica, a leading player in Polands express express delivery market with 42 depots and a 21% domestic market share. Stolica joins NetExpress Europe, of which Target was a founder member. Similar deals are planned for the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
Read MoreSTO World Wide Express, China’s largest private express company, is intending to cooperate with French La Poste, the third-largest post group in Europe, to step into the international express market. With the commitment to WTO, China’s express market would be open to foreign investment from December 11 of this year, which brings great pressure to express companies. STO needs to expand its business scope under such circumstance, revealed a high-level official of the company. They are seeking foreign business partners in the hope of obtaining new profit growth areas through introducing foreign strategic investment and expanding international express business. Meanwhile, French La Poste is also eager to find a business partner in China, seeing Europe’s first two giants TNT and DHL making profit from China’s express market.
Read MoreThe numbers from the world’s largest express operator suggest the company and its market are undergoing dramatic change. Demand for international airfreight is strong but the slowing U.S. domestic business reflects shippers’ increasing preference for time-definite ground services.
Fedex reported record results in the quarter ended Aug. 31 even as domestic express business remained stagnant and rival DHL reported it would lose more than expected in the United States as it ramps up its operations there.
FedEx chalked up a 23 percent increase in revenue in the last quarter to reach $6.98 billion. Its operating profit surged from $200 million in the period a year ago to $579 million, while the operating margin went up from 3.5 percent to 8.3 percent.
The bottom line was that net profit more than doubled, to $330 million.
Showing the kind of force it exerts on the logistics market, UPS bought up one of North America’s largest freight operators and raised new questions about how far consolidation of service providers will go and what the parcel giant’s increasingly large competitors will do to respond.
UPS bought Menlo Worldwide Forwarding, the $1.9 billion integrated and forwarding business that once carried the Emery Worldwide name around the world, from CNF for what appeared to be a fire sale equivalent of $260 million. With barely a financial dent to a balance sheet that includes more than $4.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents, UPS moved to fill a gap in its own heavy freight services and freed CNF from a financially struggling business that has distracted the company from its successful and growing Con-Way regional LTL operation.
Read MoreGoing after the U.S. express market is proving more expensive than DHL had anticipated.
The company’s parent Deutsche Post World Net says it no longer projects a profit in North America before 2006 and instead could lose around USD600 million this year and USD370 million next year as it bulks up to challenge FedEx and UPS.
DHL is spending USD1.2 billion on building infrastructure in the United States, including a network of regional ground hubs it is rolling out this fall. DHL says it remains focused on the long term market potential, not the losses in the short term.
Read MoreRoyal Mail’s deputy chairman Elmar Toime has quit the company with a GBP775,000 pay-off after a bust-up with chief executive Adam Crozier and the group’s worst service record in history.
After just 18 months in the post, Toime is expected to walk away with GBP775,000. By contrast, postal workers do not receive any severance pay if they take redundancy with less than two year’s service.
Toime’s move comes as Royal Mail nears the end of 30,000 job cuts among its postal workers.
He joined the company in February last year, one month before the arrival of Crozier, and was charged with looking after the letters business and Parcelforce Worldwide. He also chaired the management board.
Read MoreLawmakers of both parties are frustrated by the White House’s inaction on legislation to overhaul the way the U.S. Postal Service operates.
House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., is frustrated that the White House does not appear to recognize the urgency of reforming the Postal Service and has not lent its clout to advance the bills, said Davis spokesman David Marin.
The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, S 2468 and HR 4341, have been passed unanimously by the House Government Reform and Judiciary committees and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. They have not been scheduled for a vote in their respective chambers.
Read MoreHeadhunters are telling candidates for a Royal Mail boardroom job that the loss-making postal service is likely to be privatised during the term of the next government.
The approach, made this month, is contentious as the government says it has no plans to sell off the Royal Mail. The Department of Trade and Industry said: “Privatisation of Royal Mail is not on the government agenda.”
One private sector executive approached for the post of marketing director said it was made clear that the main appeal of the job was the opportunity to earn large sums during a sale. “It was all about the share options,” said the executive. “They made clear there was a chance to become a millionaire in the next three or four years. The job is to prepare the company for a possible sale.”
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