Tag: Hermes

Hermes mulls legal steps if German government extends VAT exemption for Deutsche Post

Posted by | Aug 27, 2007 | |

Hermes, a Hamburg-based logistics groups, is considering legal steps if the German Finance Ministry extends the VAT exemption for Deutsche Post World Net AG beyond 2007, its Managing Director Hanjo Schneider told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The tax exemption violates EU law, he said.

Deutsche Post enjoys an exemption from Germany’s 19 pct value-added tax in its letter and parcel services in return for its promise to deliver mail to every German household.

Without this advantage, Deutsche Post would have to raise its parcel prices ‘substantially’, Schneider said.

Hermes, which owns 29 pct in TNT NV’s TNT Post, moved some 50 mln parcels last year.

Schneider also criticized government plans to introduce minimum wages for postal workers.

If Deutsche Post’s wage agreement becomes a benchmark for the industry, the road into the letter market for new providers remains blocked, he said.

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DPD plans more parcel shops in Germany

Posted by | May 9, 2007 | |

DPD plans to build up a network of parcel shops across Germany to develop its currently small B2C business and take on DHL and Hermes. The move is part of a new strategy to broaden its product portfolio both in Germany and internationally.

“We have adopted a clear growth strategy,” DPD joint CEO Hans Fluri told German newspaper Die Welt in an interview. The German B2B market leader, with annual revenues of about EUR 1 billion, increased parcel volumes about 5.5% and turnover by 7% last year, the newspaper said. In the B2C market, however, DPD with 35 million shipments lags well behind DHL and Hermes (200 million parcels).

To expand its consumer parcels business, the La Poste subsidiary aims to build up its small network of DPD Shops. “Today we have about 500 DPD Shops. By the end of 2007 we want 2,500 outlets. By 2010 we are aiming for 5,000 shops,” Fluri said.

Although Hermes, with 13,000 outlets, and GLS (4,000) are much larger, DPD sees potential for a third network, he added. “Customer behaviour in terms of parcel shops is not yet fixed and will change. We are convinced that as a well-known firm we have a good chance,” Fluri stated.

Meanwhile, DPD now offers its international parcel distribution by air express to more than 220 countries through a network of cooperation partners, Die Welt reported. Prices are about 40% lower than normal air express rates, and transit times are 1-2 days longer. DPD recently enhanced its express service within Germany with new service options.

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Consumer deliveries and international business to drive German CEP market growth

Posted by | Jan 19, 2007 | |

The German courier, express and parcels (CEP) market is likely to grow only moderately in the 4% – 5% range over the next few years. International business will continue to grow well while consumer deliveries will generate the bulk of new volumes in the domestic sector. Those are the key findings of the newly-published “CEP Market Fact Sheet Germany” from CEP-Research. The in-depth report also contains detailed market and competitor figures, profiles of the ten leading operators, and a comparative overview of their products.

Germany reinforced its status as Europe’s largest CEP market with total revenues of just over EUR 9.2 billion in 2005, the latest report by the Hamburg-based market research company revealed. The deferred parcels segment, accounting for over 60% of market revenues, grew faster than the express sector. Confirming the recent trend towards more online-generated parcels business, the B2C/C2C (or “consumer deliveries”) segment has grown to 32% of the market. Domestic business accounted for about 75% of market revenues. “We are now expecting a 4.6% increase for the overall market in 2006, with the B2C/C2C segment generating somewhat higher growth,” commented Robert Thyssen, CEP-Research manager.

In its medium-term forecast, CEP-Research predicted that the German market will grow moderately by 4.4% a year to reach total revenues of over EUR 11.4 billion in 2010. International growth will outpace domestic market growth. Key factors driving additional volumes will be the emergence of Central and Eastern Europe as an important regional import and export market, and rising international trade with Asia. While competition in the B2B sector will intensify, domestic market growth is likely to be mostly generated by increasing demand in the B2C and C2C segments.

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Liberalisation, privatisation and regulation in the German postal services sector

Posted by | Nov 1, 2006 | |

The public monopoly in the German postal sector had already been called into question
in the public debate in the 1980s. In 1985 the German government, which at that time
was composed of a coalition of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) and the Liberal
Party (FDP), established a government committee that dealt with possible forms and
steps of privatisation and liberalisation concerning the postal and telecommunications
sector (Wehner 2005: 5, 6). The official start for the privatisation and liberalisation of
the German Post (Deutsche Bundespost) was in 1989. Through the first postal reform
(Poststrukturgesetz/Postreform I) the German Post was divided into three sectors: postal
service, postal banking and telecommunications. The political functions (regulation of
the monopolies) were separated from the entrepreneurial ones. In the course of the
second postal reform (Postreform II), which came into force at the beginning of 1995,
the three postal corporations were transformed into incorporated companies. In the first
instance the German Federal Government retained all shares of the German Post which
was renamed the Deutsche Post AG (DPAG). These two steps were affected by the
(partial) privatisation and the preparation of further liberalisation measures. The process
of liberalisation reached its preliminary climax in 1998 when a new Postal Act
(Postgesetz) came into force. Via this Act the postal market was gradually opened to
competition by successively restraining the exclusive license of the DPAG; the end of
the exclusive license was originally planned to be in 2002 but was lengthened until the
end of 2007. Moreover, the rules for licensing were laid down and the terms for the
access to the market were defined.
In November 2000 the material privatisation of the DPAG began with its initial public
offer (IPO). In the course of the IPO the DPAG was renamed as the Deutsche Post
World Net (DPWN). In order to prepare for the imminent end of its monopoly the
DPWN made several acquisitions abroad.

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Deutsche Post rivals have no plans to lower parcel prices

Posted by | Apr 10, 2006 | |

German postal services provider Hermes has said that it will not alter its prices in response to the announcement last week that former monopolist Deutsche Post is to reduce postage on small parcels. Management at Hermes said that it saw no reason to change its successful strategy in its activities with private customers and declared that Deutsche Post’s decision to lower prices was proof that competition on the market existed. GLS, a subsidiary of UK group Royal Mail, also has no plans to lower its prices.

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