Tag: France

Successful start to DPD's Parcel-Shop offensive (GER)

Posted by | Apr 8, 2008 | |

DPD is continuing the successful Parcel-Shop offensive which it began last year. There are now no less than 3,000 Parcel-Shops in Germany, with a further 1,500 expected to follow by the end of the year. Small companies and private shippers, in particular, benefit from the products and service options available from the DPD Parcel-Shops.

“At the start of last year there were 472 DPD Parcel-Shops in Germany. By the end of the year this number had risen to almost 2,500,” states Arnold Schroven, Chief Executive Officer of DPD GmbH & Co. KG. The CEO is pleased because this represents a five-fold increase in shop numbers within a single year. “This success confirms our policy of continuing our offensive strategy on this segment of the market this year, too. We intend to provide our customers with a country-wide network of 4,500 Parcel-Shops by the end of 2008.”

DPD Parcel-Shops operate on the shop-in-shop principle and are located across various branches of the retail sector, including for example stationery shops, tanning studios and consumer electronics shops. The focus is always on the interests of the customer, which means the retail outlets are those frequented regularly by consumers and where handing in or collecting a parcel can be conveniently combined with other activities. Prestigious retailing multiples such as Metro and the Staples office-supply chain are partners to DPD Parcel-Shops.

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SNCF may spend another 2 bln to 3 bln euros after Geodis acquisition – chairman

Posted by | Apr 7, 2008 | |

SNCF may spend another 2 billion to 3 billion euros on investments on top of the 600 million it is offering to pay for shares it does not already own in Geodis, Guillaume Pepy, chairman of the state-owned railway operator, told Le Figaro newspaper.

He plans further acquisitions, including an imminent one in Europe, and he is interested in port services to complete the company’s offering, Pepy said in an interview with the daily.

‘In a few days we will announce the acquisition of a continental European rail operator, which will open the door for us to new countries, notably Eastern Europe,’ he said.

The acquisition of Geodis, in which SNCF currently owns 42.37 percent, will make the transport of goods the group’s biggest division in terms of sales, Pepy said.

SNCF-Geodis will be among the world’s top five logistics groups, behind Deutsche Post AG unit DHL, Deutsche Bahn and Kuehne & Nagel International AG, the SNCF chairman said.

The Geodis deal will lift SNCF’s debt to equity ratio from 0.5 to 0.6, which is still only one-third of the level of Deutsche Bahn, and the imminent acquisition will not fundamentally alter those figures, he said.

‘That means we can still envisage profitable investments of 2 billion to 3 billion euros,’ Pepy said.

Shares in Geodis soared 30 percent today after Pepy unveiled that SNCF plans to offer 135 euros per share for the rest of the transport company.

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French mail competitor gives up

Posted by | Apr 3, 2008 | |

The major competitor to La Poste in the French addressed mail market has closed down its business, leaving the country heading for full liberalisation in 2011 without any real competition, according to the national postal regulator.

Adrexo Mail, part of the Spir Communication publishing group, effectively stopped operating in most French cities on March 31, the regional newspaper Sud Ouest reported. In February Spir had announced it would shut down the company “over the next few months” due to a combination of losses, a difficult operating environment and the delay in postal liberalisation from 2009 until 2011.

The mail company, set up in 2006 with the aim of becoming the top private competitor to La Poste, made an operating loss of EUR 18 million in 2007. Spir’s overall addressed distribution business, incorporating Adrexo Mail and the small B2C parcels company Distrihome, made a combined operating loss of EUR 16.4 million last year on revenues of EUR 59.1 million. In contrast, the long-established Adrexo unaddressed mail distribution business made an operating profit of EUR 25 million on revenues of EUR 244.5 million last year.

During 2006 and 2007, Adrexo Mail set up addressed mail distribution networks in several key French regions, including Paris, Lille, Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse. It had been planning to extend its network to other urban areas including Bordeaux, Nantes, Côte d’Azur and Alsace during 2008.

The effectively liberalised segment of the French addressed mail market open to real competition was narrow, and mainly comprised business mail over 50g for delivery in urban areas. ARCEP estimated that competitors needed a 20 pct market share in this narrow segment in order to cover just their delivery costs, Champsaur said. “Most probably, alternative operators cannot find sufficient volumes to achieve economies of scale necessary to compete with the USO provider.”

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