Argos Home Delivery has appointed Exel in a major contract to manage a brand new regional distribution centre in Darlington, County Durham. It will serve customers in the North of England, Scotland and Ireland. Argos already uses Exel to manage two existing distribution centres, at Marsh Leys near Bedford and Acton Gate near Stafford. These operations, which between them cover the rest of the country, will continue.
Read MoreChristian Salvesen, not hitherto a significant player in the home shopping and e-fulfilment market, has joined forces with solutions house Venda to set up a one-stop shop multi-channel logistics service. A third main player in the operation is Parcelforce Worldwide, which has been appointed by Salvesen to handle most of the actual deliveries. The move is seen by some as marking an important stage in the evolution of multi-channel fulfilment, demonstrating that this is a sector the traditional logistics market now takes seriously.
Initially the service is expected to operate out of Salvesen’s Buxton warehouse, but managing director Stewart Oades says that in theory it can take advantage of any of the company’s 200-odd UK bases.
DHL is expanding in retail distribution with a two-pronged attack – one on home delivery and the other on supermarket supply of non-food items such as CDs, DVDs, books, greeting cards and similar items. The company has just opened units in three Staples stationery stores – Telford, Bolton and Milton Keynes – to allow home consumers or small businesses to post parcels or to use the units as collection points for online or catalogue purchases. In addition, DHL is looking at employing part-time drivers to offer evening and weekend deliveries. ‘We are talking to retailers to identify the best way to provide the delivery services both they and the consumer need at a respectable cost,’ explains Manish Joshi, general manager, express division.
Read MoreCeska posta, the Czech Post Office, was the only bidder for a licence to provide basic postal services in the next three years in a tender closed today, the regulatory Czech Telecoms Office CTU said. “The licence can be granted only to those who have adequate technological, organisational, economic and personnel qualities for such a task, including a branch network,” said Eduard Prandstetter from the CTU’s section for postal service regulation. Up to now, Ceska posta has always been the only applicant for the licence and has always obtained it. Prandstetter said the branch network requirement was one of the key obstacles to bigger competition among bidders for the licence.
Read MoreAustrian postal company Oesterreichische Post AG (Post) does not plan an increase of its postal tariffs in the short term, Post AG CEO Anton Wais said on September 29, 2005. After the last increase in tariffs in 2003 Post AG said it would not revise them until the end of 2006. What will happen in 2007 will be planned in 2006, Wais said, adding that the postal tariffs were too low. The present stamp for a standard letter costs 0.55 euro (USD0.66) in Austria and is in the top quarter of the European Union (EU) average. Only Denmark, Italy, Finland and Sweden charge more while the tariffs in Germany are the same. Post will continue to pay dividends over the next few years, despite growing costs, Wais said.
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