Blue Dart Express, DHL’s Indian subsidiary, told journalists yesterday it would invest INR 3.5billion (EUR 62.3 million) expanding its network and infrastructure in the southern part of the
country.The company aims to set up 20 hubs to manage its ground operations in the south over the nextfive years, the country’s Business Standard newspaper reported.
It already has eight hubs in the south, with another two planned to open before the end ofthis year. Blue Dart’s aim is to capture 20% of the Indian ground express business by 2015; itcurrently has just under 6% of that market, says the Standard.
“The south represents around 34% of our company sales. The rapidly improving roadinfrastructure provides us with an exciting opportunity to grow our business on the ground,” BlueDart managing director Anil Khanna is quoted as saying.
Blue Dart is also in talks with airport operators in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad andKolkata with regard to acquiring dedicated cargo space to be shared with DHL.
The express carrier is looking at taking around 15,000-30,000 sqm of space, while in smallerones such as Kolkata the space requirement would be around 5,000 sqm, the Economic Times reported.The move would help cut down on turn-around time for loading and unloading cargo and mail in theairports
Blue Dart is to add a new freighter in October, its seventh, a Boeing 757 to increase thecompany’s capacity to 300 tonnes.
The company announced encouraging results in July – a 19% sales rise for the first half ofthis calendar year to EUR 66.5 million (INR 3.69 billion). Profit before tax rose by over 14% toEUR 9.22 million (INR 511.7 million) compared to 2005.
