Tag: Europe

Kiala enters Austrian B2C parcel market

Posted by | Oct 11, 2007 | |

The Belgian-based parcels operator Kiala has entered the Austrian B2C parcels market, intensifying competition for Austrian Post.

The company has built up a network of 290 parcel pick-up points in kiosks, shops, petrol stations and other retail outlets, and plans to add about 100 more by next spring, Kiala Austria managing director Michael Zakoucz told Austrian media.

Customers are informed by SMS, e-mail or phone that a parcel is ready for collection at a nearby “Kiala Point”. Transportation has been contracted out to Salzburg-based newspaper distribution company PGV Salzburg.

The operator’s first major customers in Austria are the mail order companies La Redoute and Klingel. Zakoucz said that Kiala is aiming to gain a market share of 13-15pct in 2008.

Kiala, which is currently active in Benelux and France and has a test operation in the UK, increased turnover by 21 pct to EUR 25 million in 2006 and handled some 10 million parcels. It claims a network of 4,700 Kiala Points in Europe.

The company, whose investors include funds linked to La Poste and TNT, has also recently appointed a country manager for Russia and a new manager for Spain.

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ARCEP Chair Paul Champsaur presentation in the French National Assembly

Posted by | Oct 11, 2007 | |

In a speech before the Committee on Economic Affairs of the French National Assembly Paul Champsaur, ARCEP Chair, said he is happy with the political compromise on postal liberalization reached by the EU as it safeguards the universal service and leaves posts ample time to prepare. Mr. Champsaur added that he is confident that La Poste will have completed its transformation by 2011 and will be able to withstand competition when the market is fully liberalized on 1 January 2011, especially in an environment where competition is expected to grow at a slow pace. While Mr. Champsaur hopes that financial compensation for the universal service burden will not be needed, he affirms that principles of a compensation fund will be worked out with stakeholders in the meantime, in case such a funding mechanism is required. In addition, Mr. Champsaur said the progressive steps that key neighboring countries took before they fully opened up their market – UK first liberalized bulk mail, Germany first liberalized added value items, and direct mail had long been liberalized in the Netherlands – helped competitors and other stakeholders, such as mailing houses, better prepare for full liberalisation. In response to a question put by MPs, Champsaur says that the possibility of fully opening up the direct mail market before 2011 “should be studied”.

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DHL Express Bahrain head moves to Saudi

Posted by | Oct 11, 2007 | |

DHL Express Bahrain yesterday announced the redeployment of its top brass to boost operations in the Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.

Nour Suliman, its Bahrain Country Manager for six years with 29 years experience with the express and logistics provider, has been made the Country Manager for its operations in Saudi Arabia.

Mark Benton, DHL’s Country Manager for Oman, replaces Nour Suliman at DHL Express Bahrain. Mark has been with DHL since 2000 when he joined DHL Express New Zealand as National Operations Manager. After three years, Mark moved to SNAS/DHL Saudi Arabia as National Operations Manager based in Al Khobar. In April 2006, he was given the Oman posting.

Suliman and Benton’s promotions come as part of DHL’s continuous plan for expanding and growing the business in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, said Dave Spargo, Regional Area Director for DHL Middle East. Saudi Arabia is considered the biggest logistics market in the Middle East, and Bahrain is strategically important, as the location for the company’s regional hub, as well as a local market continuing to offer growth in the express freight and logistics business.

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TNT Express delivers for French e-retailer Cdiscount.com

Posted by | Oct 11, 2007 | |

TNT Express France has won a contract to deliver goods ordered online from leading e-retailer Cdiscount.com. The deal extends the operator’s home delivery activities in France.

Since September, TNT Express France has been delivering goods within 24 hours for the sales portal, which claims to be France’s largest e-commerce website.

Under the cooperation, consumers buying goods on Cdiscount.com can select TNT as their transport provider and have their items delivered direct to their home. Deliveries are made within 24 hours of the order being processed, with deliveries made Monday to Saturday between 08:00 and 13:00. Cdiscount.com customers can track their goods through the website.

If the consumer is not at home, the item is made available on the same day at the nearest Relais Colis pick-up point and the customer is informed by SMS. TNT cooperates with this parcel drop-off and pick-up network, which works on a shop-in-shop retail basis and has 3,800 outlets across France.

The e-retail website was set up in 1998. It has 40 online shops, 5.2 million customers and more than 25,000 orders per day.

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European Commission pleased with Royal Mail's efforts in preparing the U.K. for liberalisation of E.U.

Posted by | Oct 11, 2007 | |

Poor service and intermittent strikes continue to spur the company’s customers to patronise competitors such as TNT and U.K. Mail Ltd, as resistance to using alternatives to the Royal Mail erodes as the British market opens to competitors.

The anger among Royal Mail’s customers caused by the disruption should be good news for the likes of Deutsche Post that are eyeing the U.K. market post-liberalization in 2011.

Royal Mail customers have unsurprisingly looked elsewhere for postal services after four days of strike action this week and threats of more disruption to the Royal Mail’s postal service.

It’s 40 pct less productive than rivals such as Deutsche Post, down mainly to the strong labor union that prevents the automatization seen in rivals’ operations. The union’s also ensured that Royal Mail workers are paid 25 pct more than competitors’ too.

Management has a long way to go to get the company ready for full competition.

But as good as the strike may be in the long-term for Royal Mail’s competitors, in the short-term it’s bad for the U.K. economy.

Retail sales are one of the few remaining drivers of an increasingly fragile U.K. economy, after house prices have begun to fall, business confidence has dropped and the official outlook for GDP growth in the U.K. for 2008 has been cut by 50 basis points.
Retail sales over the Internet stand to be hit by the postal strike. That’s worrying because they comprise 15 pct of total sales, worth GBP4 billion in July, according to the Interactive Media in Retail Group.

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