CEP service provider DPD has now expanded its network in Russia to thirty locations. The three recently opened depots in Novokuznetsk, Orenburg and Astrakhan enable DPD to serve all of Russia’s regions with a comprehensive service portfolio, ranging from DPD CLASSIC to Express shipping. As is the case in Germany, this means that in Russia, too, DPD remains true to its strategy of operating close to the customer on a regional basis.
Read MoreThe beginning of this year brought an avalanche of mergers and acquisitions on the domestic delivery market in Romania. Founders of Cargus sold the company to the international player DHL, Pegasus was taken over by GeoPost and Yurtici Cargo company Trans Courier Service was bought by UPS, whereas TCE Logistics and Curiero merged.
Fan Courier is the only delivery company of the top three which did not announce its selling intention.
For this year, Fan Courier plans to make investments worth 20 million euros. “We’ve conceived ever since last year a pretty bold investments plan. We will construct a new headquarters that will endorse our growth. The land alone cost us 2.5 million euros and the investments in the building alone will reach about 8.5 million euros. To them adds the transporting strip that will cost other 4 million euros. Then there will be the equipment of all our couriers with PDAs (personal digital assistant), which entails other 2 million euros. However, when we will finalize the investments, our company might really compete from a technical and quality viewpoint with any company from Romania and from abroad,” say the owners of the company.
Related to a prospective sell of the company, there have been many offers but none went beyond the principle stage.
The first quarter of the year, the company reported a turnover worth 9.8 million euros, over the same period of the previous year.
Read MoreInternational postal services are moving resolutely towards the future, declared Edouard Dayan, Director General of the Universal Postal Union, at the close of the 24th Universal Postal Congress, which ended its three weeks of discussions today.
“From Bucharest to Geneva, the whole tone has changed. Four years ago, an air of pessimism hung around the future of postal services” said Dayan. “Today, our agenda includes e-commerce, technological development, intelligent mail, facilitation of international trade and exchanges, electronic money transfers, sustainable development, international cooperation, postal infrastructure at the service of development policies, and development – rather than downsizing – of the universal service”. At the closing session of Congress, the Director General also described the many faces of a sector which is active on all fronts of the global economy, in the face of burgeoning new technologies and the growth of globalization and international trade.
Aside from the elections, Congress also examined 300 proposals and resolutions relating to the structure of the UPU, its mission and finances, and to international exchanges of letters, parcels and money transfers between postal operators the world over. In terms of operations, for example, minimum security standards and processes for postal operators will be drawn up, and Posts are invited to work more closely with customs authorities to identify counterfeit or pirated articles sent through the mail.
Read MoreUnited Parcel Service (UPS) is plotting a EUR 10bn (GB 7.8bn) bid for Dutch rival TNT, a move that could herald the long-awaited consolidation in the global express-delivery business.
UPS has made an informal approach to TNT, its European rival and one of Royal Mail’s biggest competitors in Britain. Despite initial reluctance from TNT, early-stage talks about a potential tie-up have been held in recent days, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.
Soaring fuel costs have hit global courier businesses hard. The share prices of the main firms – UPS and FedEx in American and TNT and DHL in Europe – have suffered in recent months, making consolidation both cheaper and compelling.
UPS, which has a market value of USD 66.24bn and dominates the American delivery market with rival FedEx, has appointed investment bank Morgan Stanley as adviser.
The American company has also brought in strategy consultants AT Kearney to carry out a detailed report on a potential deal with TNT.
Insiders said that AT Kearney has now finished its report and delivered to Morgan Stanley, whose bankers are now spearheading discussions with TNT.
Both UPS and FedEx have eyed TNT’s parcel business for several years but are said to have been put off bidding for the firm because of its slower-growing postal division.
Sources said that UPS’ plans to buy TNT could include selling its postal division, possibly to a private equity buyer. It may instead decide to team up with a buyout firm. It is thought CVC, the European buyout giant, could be interested because it already owns stakes in Belgium postal operator De Post-La Post and Post Danmark, a Danish postal company.
A deal with TNT would deliver to UPS substantial cost savings as well as a vast European reach – something it has been trying to slowly build up in recent years. The company recently forged closer ties to TNT’s main rival, DHL, through its agreement to ferry the Deutsche Post unit’s packages between North American cities.
Read MoreGreece will chair the next Postal Operations Council of the Universal Postal Union, in the person of Dr. Andreas Taprantzis, Chief Executive Office of the Greek postal operator, ELTA.
The 40 member countries newly elected to the Postal Operations Council held their first meeting to elect their chair, a position Great Britain, Greece and Switzerland were vying for.
Greece received 22 votes against 18 for Great Britain in the second round of voting.
In thanking the members for their support, Taprantzis added that Greece would devote itself and its resources for the benefit of the UPU and all its member countries.
The Postal Operations Council deals with technical and operational issues affecting the international postal sector. It promotes the introduction of new postal products and makes recommendations to member countries concerning standards for technological, operational or other processes. The Council’s programme of work aims above all at helping postal services to modernize and upgrade their postal products.
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