Tag: Hermes

German CEP operators expect moderate growth

Posted by | Jun 11, 2008 | |

Express and parcel delivery companies in Germany expect only moderate growth this year after 5 pct growth in 2007, according to an industry association.

Gunnar Uldall, former Hamburg economics senator and new president of the German International Express and Courier Services Association (BIEK), said that the CEP sector generated volume growth of nearly 5 pct and revenue growth of over 5 pct last year. Further moderate growth is expected for 2008. The association represents DPD, FedEx, Go!, Hermes, TNT and UPS.

The CEP industry was a key services sector with growing importance for the German economy, with its strong export focus, Uldall told a news conference. BIEK members had taken on about 3,000 more employees last year, and there is currently a need for qualified drivers, he noted. BIEK members employ about 65,000 staff directly or as self-employed drivers. There are about 173,500 people working in the German CEP sector as a whole.

Addressing key issues for the association, Uldall criticised Deutsche Post’s VAT exemption for letters up to 2kg and parcels up to 20kg which was a competitive distortion in the formally liberalised German mail market.

Since neither option was likely, however, BIEK proposed a compromise, with deliveries of up to 50 letters, including individual private letters, remaining VAT-exempt, and all other items, including bulk mail, parcels and added-value mail, being VAT-chargeable. This would not lead to a price increase for customers due to intense competition between Deutsche Post and private operators, Uldall said.

BIEK will also hold talks with Deutsche Bahn over opportunities to transport more express and parcel shipments by rail, and continue to promote the use of alternative fuels and motors to reduce CO2 emissions, he added.

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Hermes demands exemption from German value-added tax (Germany)

Posted by | Jan 21, 2008 | |

Otto’s logistics group Hermes, which specializes in package delivery, is demanding that the German government exempt it from paying value-added tax, Financial Times Deutschland reported, citing chief executive Hanjo Schneider.
‘We want to be exempt from value-added tax, just like Deutsche Post,’ he said.
Schneider said Hermes filed an application for exemption in November, and said the company will take legal action if the application is denied.
He also said the company is considering demanding compensation for the two months it has already waited for a response from the finance ministry.
Under current rules, rival Deutsche Post World Net AG’s basic postal services are exempt from the 19 pct VAT while comparable services provided by rivals are not, even after the company’s monopoly on delivering letters expires at the end of the year.
Deutsche Post obtained the exemption in exchange for the guarantee that it will deliver mail to every household in Germany, whether it is on a North Sea island or in mountainous regions of southern Germany.
‘We offer this universal service in the package sector as well,’ Schneider said.
Hermes, which has annual sales of about 200 mln eur, could save about 40 mln eur on value-added tax, the newspaper said.

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Austrian Post to lose Neckermann Oesterreich delivery contract from mid 2008

Posted by | Nov 8, 2007 | |

Austrian Post will lose its delivery contract with the Austrian arm of the mail-order company Neckermann from the middle of next year to the German logistics company Hermes, according to the Austrian daily WirtschaftsBlatt.

‘What is certain is that we are going to switch (to Hermes) in the first half of 2008,’ Bernd Kupfer the head of Neckerman Oesterreich told WirtschaftsBlatt.

Neckermann Oesterreich sends between 3-4 mln packages a year in Austria and is 49 pct-owned by Germany’s Acandor AG.

Yesterday, Austrian Post said Quelle Oesterreich, also a unit of Acandor, had decided to use alternative postal services providers to deliver its 7 mln packages in Austria as of Jan 1.

Post said it expects to see its operating results lowered by around 20 mln eur from 2008; as a result the share plummeted over 14 pct to 24 eur.

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Hermes Logistik opens new EUR 34m hub in Hückelhoven (North Rhine-Westphalia)

Posted by | Oct 5, 2007 | |

German parcels operator Hermes Logistik has put into operation its new hub in Hückelhoven, North Rhine-Westphalia, which is directly linked to an expanded distribution centre of German teleshopping company QVC, a key Hermes customer. The hub will also help the parcels operator further expand its European B2C activities.

Hermes said it has invested EUR 34 million in the building and sorting technology at the 12,000 sqm facility which will handle up to 50 million shipments 360 days per year. Some 125 new employees will sort up to 22,000 parcels an hour.

Construction took about one year. One technical innovation is the volume measurement of each shipment in order to calculate capacity loading exactly and optimise route planning.

The hub is directly connected to the neighbouring QVC distribution centre which has been expanded to 35,000 sqm during the same time. The teleshopping company will feed up to 11,000 shipments an hour into the Hermes hub. QVC plans to invest EUR 45 million in the overall extension of its central distribution centre, with completion due in spring 2008.

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