Tag: Courier/Express/Parcels

CPL – Aramex plans more acquisitions

Posted by | Oct 4, 2007 | |

Aramex plans to continue buying freight companies in key markets around the world to build up its global network, Osama Fatalleh, senior vice president and chief strategic officer, told the CPL Summit in Barcelona this week.

The Middle East-based freight logistics company wants to become the world’s fifth-largest express player through a mix of subsidiaries, alliance partners and franchises. “Our industry cannot continue to be controlled by four companies on a global scale,” Fatelleh said.

Over the last few years, Aramex had built up a worldwide network through this mixed approach but continued to face the challenge of having partners acquired by one of the big four players, Fatelleh said. In response, Aramex had decided to move from a cooperation model to a financial holding strategy in key markets such as the US, Asia and Central Europe, he said.

At the same time, Aramex was broadening its product portfolio into freight. In future, it was likely to buy freight companies and then widen them with express services since there were now few attractive express companies left to buy, he commented. Aramex also planned to open up its network to smaller local or regional players to give them more opportunity to compete with the big four integrators, he added.

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Business Post extends share of UK postal market

Posted by | Oct 4, 2007 | |

Guy Buswell, chief executive of Business Post, the private parcel and mail delivery group, said the postal strike beginning on Thursday could endanger the future of the mail industry if the dispute was not resolved soon.

During the strike, he said, the 6m to 8m pieces of mail which Business Post’s UK Mail subsidiary collects every night would continue to be delivered into Royal Mail depots and wait there for final delivery once the postmen and women were back at work.

Mr Buswell also said the group’s parcels business had seen a sudden slump in deliveries to consumers in the days following the Northern Rock crisis. He said there had been “a huge reduction in volumes” of parcel deliveries from companies which sell electronic goods, such as computers, over the internet.

He said the business had picked up again since, but that it showed that consumer confidence could be hit by such events.

In a trading update covering the group’s half year to the end of September, the group said the UK Mail business “continues to achieve strong growth with revenues in the period up by some 60 per cent.” The mail market in the UK was fully opened to competition in 2006 and UK Mail now has a 7½ per cent market share.

Group revenues in the half year were affected by the loss of a contract with Federal Express. That contract, worth GBP 20m a year in revenues and GBP 2m in operating profits, ended on April 30 after FedEx acquired a UK parcels business.

Mr Buswell said that the group was having success in winning new contracts, however, the loss of the FedEx contract meant that group revenues had increased in the first half by 9 per cent rather than an underlying 15 per cent.

Revenues from the group’s parcels operation were in-line with the same period of last year, as “good growth” in the business-to-business parcels operation had been offset by a decline in deliveries to consumers.

The group’s shares, which have fallen from around 480p in recent weeks ahead of the postal strike, slipped another 6p to 394p in morning trading.

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DHL receives honours for employee engagement and recognition programs

Posted by | Oct 4, 2007 | |

DHL announced today it has been honoured with the third annual Carrot Culture(R) Award at the 2007 Executive Recognition Summit held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. DHL was selected over a number of other companies for its successful implementation of employee engagement and recognition programs in promoting a customer-focused culture.

O.C. Tanner Recognition Company, the world’s leading provider of employee recognition solutions, presented the award to DHL this year, citing the Company’s commitment to using rewards and recognition to enhance employee engagement, attract and retain employees, boost overall productivity, and drive successful business results. The Carrot Culture Award is based on the New York Times bestselling book “The Carrot Principle.”

DHL was citied for significant improvements in employee satisfaction, achieving best-in-class scores as measured by a 2007 employee opinion survey. DHL also raised overall awareness and utilization of its recognition programs, showing a 330 percent increase in program participation.

DHL was also recognized for using strategic recognition to:
– Reinforce its brand of responsiveness and customer-centric principles among its employees
– Help managers understand why recognition is important and creating meaningful tools to execute the strategy
– Successfully measure employee satisfaction, and
– Use shared best practices with other companies in support of the concept of recognition as a key aspect of the employee work experience.

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CPL – CEP industry needs more innovation, better customer service

Posted by | Oct 4, 2007 | |

Globalization, the internet, customer service and innovation are the key challenges facing the CEP industry, according to speakers at the Courier and Parcel Logistics Summit held in Barcelona this week.

Expanding international networks, how to leverage leading-edge technology and respond to increasingly global sourcing, production and supply now characterized the sector at a key juncture in its development, a lively first session of the summit on Tuesday heard.

Speaker Colum Joyce, CEO of KBOR Research, spelling out the opportunities and challenges the industry faced, provocatively said express operators seemed “self-satisfied” with their business models. “The industry faces unprecedented challenges and unprecedented opportunities. Globalization wouldn’t exist without the express industry. As it has matured, though, it has decreased in flexibility, leading to commoditization (which) has led to poor profits, falling differentiation and reduced innovation,” Joyce said.

During a panel discussion, UPS strategy vice-president, Frank Sportolari, rejected the notion that the express industry was not responding to customer needs. “I would not say we are self-satisfied. What we have is satisfied customers. We are creating demand, responding to demand and creating global commerce.” FedEx vice-president for central and eastern Europe operations, Michael Mühlberger, agreed with his UPS rival. “Whenever there is a need, we will react to it,” he said.

Peter van Laarhoven, group director strategy at TNT Express, began the session, saying the carrier was looking to expand in eastern Europe, Turkey and South Africa. On Russia, he was more hesitant. “It’s a very big but very difficult market,” van Laarhoven told delegates. TNT’s key focus was on expanding its networks to capitalise upon growth opportunities and optimising its capital structure to provide sufficient funding for a combination of acquisitions, dividends and share buy backs.

Sportolani outlined UPS’ growth strategy, the key strands of which were to build up its leadership position in the US and continue international expansion, particularly in Europe. UPS would increasingly provide comprehensive supply chain solutions, leverage leading-edge technology and pursue further strategic acquisitions.

Mühlberger said the industry was faced with several large trends, one of which was the way in which the value of goods was increasing. Although air cargo is only 3 pct of worldwide freight in weight terms, it represents 40 pct of the total value. Mühlberger said that countries had to provide greater access to goods, services and information if the international express market was to grow as rapidly as forecast. In an Access study by FedEx, Hong Kong and Singapore were the most open trading countries, while the US languished in 12th place, he pointed out.

GeoPost board member Hans Fluri said the DPD parcels network was now No.2 in Europe, behind only DHL, with some EUR 3 billion in sales revenues. The company’s classic international service was growing at 20 pct per year and, since DPD has no requirement to buy aircraft, it was able to provide a Germany-China service at 30-40 pct cheaper than the big integrators, he said. The CEP industry was changing significantly, Fluri told participants. “We have to live up to the expectations and desires of our customers. Worldwide sourcing, producing and supply raise demand for international standard and express shipments,” he stressed.

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