Tag: La Poste

DPD defends Austrian B2B parcel market leadership

Posted by | Mar 12, 2007 | |

DPD has successfully defended its leadership of the Austrian B2B parcels market despite the efforts of expanding Austrian Post to win a sizeable chunk of the market.

DPD Austria has announced that it increased turnover by 6.4% to EUR 132.2 million in 2006, which kept it at the head of the B2B parcels market. DPD carried 34.2 million parcels in Austria last year, which was an increase of 8.2%. About 70% of these volumes were domestic, and 30% were international.

Key success factors were the carrier’s strong regional presence with 13 depots and performance quality of 98% for transit time reliability. “Our regional expertise makes us into a strong partner for our customers,” said managing director Georg Karoh.

For 2007, DPD Austria is targeting turnover growth of 2.5% and a volume increase of 4.5%. The carrier will be putting a special focus on neighbouring Eastern European countries as well as the new EU members Romania and Bulgaria. The carrier has 1,400 employees and 900 vehicles.

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GeoPost strengthens its presence in Spain with the acquisition of SEUR-SANTANDER

Posted by | Mar 12, 2007 | |

GeoPost has just acquired the SEUR-Santander franchise (Province of Cantabria).

This operation was made possible through the joint-venture SEUR GeoPost (60% held by GeoPost SA and 40% by SEUR SA), which has a turnover for a full 12 months in excess of euro230 million.

Located in the Cantabria region, Northern Spain, the Santander franchise, employs around 80 people, and has a turnover of almost euro7 million per year.

“This acquisition strengthens SEUR GeoPost’s position in Northern Spain” explains Yves Delmas, CEO of SEUR GeoPost. Following the acquisition of a series of franchises since 2004, SEUR GeoPost now manages eight franchises in Spain: Madrid, Bilbao, Zaragoza, Soria, Gerona, Baix de Llobregat, Granollers and, recently, Santander. With the acquisition of the Santander franchise GeoPost raises its stake to 19.6%.in its partner’s capital, SEUR
Spain therefore asserts its position as one of key players of the GeoPost group’s development in Southern Europe.

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Chirac gets deal to safeguard universal post services

Posted by | Mar 9, 2007 | |

The commission wants to open postal markets to unrestricted competition, forcing E.U. nations to withdraw state support for national postal services.
Proposals put forward by the commission would have forced France to unwind its unlimited guarantee for all liabilities held by La Poste, which makes the company a low-risk borrower. The country’s 17,000 post offices would also have had to share the market with global mail carriers like TNT and Deutsche Post AG (DPW.XE), as well as express carriers like United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) and FedEx Corp. (FDX).
France was one of the fiercest critics of the reforms, arguing the moves would crush La Poste and threaten services in small towns. Competitors would cherry pick the most profitable businesses, such as city deliveries, and neglect rural regions, it said.
The commission’s current proposal calls for prying opening the E.U. postal market by 2009.
While the E.U. heads of state and government Friday gave general backing to the commission’s plan, they shied away from endorsing the 2009 timeframe and kept open a wide window for France to keep protecting La Poste’s monopoly.
The leaders called for “further liberalization of the postal markets, while ensuring the financing of an efficient universal service.”

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DPD Masterlink investment plans for 2007

Posted by | Mar 5, 2007 | |

DPD Masterlink investment plans for 2007 are expected to total 6 million euro. At the beginning of spring the company plans to set up a new, 5,000 square metre depot in Gdansk. This investment will cost approximately 2.5 million euro. The new depot will be built in compliance with the company’s strategy of seeking to purchase properties when establishing new branches, instead of renting the existing infrastructure. The costs of the investments planned for 2007 will be covered partially from the company’s own capital and through leasing agreements.

Employee numbers are also expected to continue to grow. At the end of 2006 DPD Masterlink employed 3,600 people. By the end of 2007 total employee numbers are expected to rise to around 5,000.

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Electric vans for French post office

Posted by | Mar 4, 2007 | |

In late 2005, France’s state-run postal service began a trial of eight experimental Cleanova electric vans in an effort to meet a government requirement to reduce pollution.

Not only did the vans work well and prove cheaper to operate than gasoline-powered ones, but the mailmen who drove them reported higher job satisfaction. Now, La Poste is working on a five-year plan to replace the bulk of its 48,000-vehicle fleet with electric cars.

The cars La Poste used were developed by Société de Véhicules Électriques (SVE), and were outfitted with a specially designed lithium-ion battery developed by a joint venture of Milwaukee car-parts maker Johnson Controls Inc. and French battery company Saft Groupe.

SVE has yet to settle on a price for its electric car, and it isn’t clear how much La Poste will have to pay to increase its fleet. But the car will be significantly more expensive than a traditional gasoline-powered vehicle because of the high cost of the lithium-ion battery, which La Poste says would account for about 60% of the unit price. The mail company says it will save on operating expenses because charging the electric car with electricity costs about one-sixth what it would spend to fill up the tank with gasoline.

SVE plans to make only a few cars at first. The French company expects to begin volume production toward year end with the assembly of 1,000 vehicles and, from 2009, gradually ramp up production to about 20,000 a year. That would be a fraction of the two million vehicles sold in France every year, though still more than all the other electric cars ever produced.

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