Tag: Germany

trans-o-flex becomes exclusive logistics partner of tea supplier Ronnefeldt

Posted by | Jul 22, 2008 | |

Premium tea manufacturer J.T. Ronnefeldt has contracted the German express company trans-o-flex to manage stock-keeping, distribution and debtor management for all orders made by private customers via internet.

For years, trans-o-flex has been carrying out the distribution of products from Ronnefeldt’s warehouse in Pennigbuettel near Bremen, Germany. Based on this successful cooperation, the partners decided to broaden their partnership. Ronnefeldt has now put in stock 350 items at the trans-o-flex logistics site in Weinheim awaiting direct orders from private customers via the new online shop.

Trans-o-flex IT specialists have programmed an interface between Ronnefeldt’s online shop and the internet ordering portal InetOrder for the tea company’s new consumer service. The tea order data now goes electronically to trans-o-flex, where the shipments are prepared and packed immediately in Weinheim. InetOrder also generates the recipient invoice according to Ronnefeldt’s specifications, encloses the invoice with the package and forwards all the data to the trans-o-flex accounting department. This department not only processes the data for invoicing to Ronnefeldt, but also takes care of debtor management and consumer debt recovery, where necessary, on behalf of the customer.

The new activity means added volume in the areas of warehousing and fulfilment, trans-o-flex said. Ronnefeldt benefits from the partnership by not having to take care of the logistics or accounting for the small-volume private orders.

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WHU and DHL publish joint logistics study

Posted by | Jul 21, 2008 | |

WHU Otto-Beisheim School of Management and DHL Exel Supply Chain have published a joint logistics study entitled “Successful logistics: getting the relationship with logistic service providers right”.

The study provides an overall picture of outsourcing practices in trade and industry in Germany. At the same time, it provides recommendations for action with a special emphasis on the design of contracts from the point of view of contract awarders. More than 300 companies participated in a survey about their business relationships with their logistics partners.

Compelling reasons for conducting this study included the increasing complexity of cooperation between customers and service providers and the broadening scope of services provided.

Many contractors underestimate this factor and opt for contract models that are only superficially beneficial. On the other hand, if the remuneration structure is tailored individually to match the agreed partnership framework, it is possible to enormously increase the performance of the service providers and therefore the success of outsourcing. The study provides some practically relevant examples.

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Deutsche Post in no rush to sell Postbank: CFO

Posted by | Jul 19, 2008 | |

eutsche Post is in no rush to sell its 50 percent plus one share stake in Deutsche Postbank, Post’s finance chief was quoted on Saturday as saying.

“If the management board would reach the conclusion that the time to sell is bad then we are under no pressure to sell,” Chief Financial Officer John Allen told German financial daily Boersen-Zeitung.

Post was still in talks with a small number of prospective buyers but it was impossible to say when or whether a sale of Postbank would happen, he told the newspaper.

According to sources familiar with the matter, prospective buyers of Germany’s biggest retail bank with nearly 15 million customers could include Deutsche Bank, Banco Santander of Spain and Dutch ING Group NV.

The recent fall in share prices of financial companies around the world — Postbank has lost a quarter of its market value since early June — has led analysts to doubt whether Post can obtain the kind of price it wants for its Postbank stake.

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A long and stony road to European postal competition

Posted by | Jul 18, 2008 | |

Following full liberalisation in four European countries (UK, Germany, Sweden and Finland), about 54 pct of the total EU mail market in volume terms is now completely open to competition, Alex Dieke, head of Postal Services and Logistics for German-based market research institute wik-Consult, told last month’s World Mail & Express Europe conference in Budapest organised by Triangle Management Services. But experience from these four liberalised markets showed that “it will take a long time for effective competition to arrive”, he commented. In the long-term, competitors might be able to gain up to 20-25 pct of larger markets, he forecast.

In Britain, which liberalised in 2006, competitors such as UK Mail and TNT Post had gained a 10 pct market share in terms of “upstream” volumes collected from customers but there was still no major competitor to Royal Mile for “last-mile” deliveries to businesses and consumers, Dieke said. In Sweden, where the market was opened in 1993, competitor CityMail still only had about 10 pct of the market. In Finland, which liberalised in 1997, high entry barriers meant there was no real competitor to Itella. In the Netherlands, which along with Slovakia might open its market before the official EU-wide liberalisation date of January 2011, competitors Selektmail and Sandd had gained 12 pct of the market despite TNT’s remaining monopoly, he noted.

Iain McLure, CEO of Spring Global Mail, criticised European postal operators for the repeated delays to liberalisation in recent years. “How long does the postal sector need to get prepared for competition?” he asked. In future, postal operators would have to focus on offering products in line with customer demand, better customer service and opportunities to achieve cost savings, the experienced postal manger forecast.

Spring, the TNT/Royal Mail/Singapore Post subsidiary, regularly used alternatives to national postal operators in some markets in order to provide quality services and lower costs, McLure pointed out. But he stressed: “As a broker, we are more of a customer (to postal operators) than a competitor.” Spring had been profitable for the past eight years, he noted.

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GLS invests in new premises in Germany

Posted by | Jul 18, 2008 | |

GLS Germany has signed a purchase contract for a 5,000 sqm facility located in Vaihingen-Enz, southeast Germany, and plans to start construction of the new depot at the end of this month.

The new GLS depot is planned to go into operation in April 2009, GLS said. The warehouse will have the capacity to handle about 55,000 parcels per day. In line with the company’s safety standards, it will be equipped with a state-of-the-art video surveillance system and high-performance alarm device. After signing the contract, GLS now plans the next step pushing the realisation of the new depot.

“We are happy about the easy completion of negotiations,” says Klaus Conrad, managing director GLS Germany. “The cooperation with the town Vaihingen has been quick and professional in every respect.”

For 2008/2009, GLS plans to invest EUR 94 million in infrastructure and services with priority on Germany, Poland, Netherlands and France. Along with the construction and upgrading of depots, the company wants to focus on rolling out industrial parcel production processes throughout the network as well as implementing new solutions for the “last mile” in B2C business.

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