Austrian Post is poised to make four more acquisitions as it builds up its parcels subsidiarytrans-o-flex and the Eurodis international network, adds services and expands logistics
infrastructure.The listed company is currently conducting due diligence on four relatively small parcels andmail companies, three of them in Eastern Europe and one in Western Europe, chairman Anton Wais saidat a media briefing in Frankfurt earlier this week.
Austrian Post, which already bought ten companies in 2007, has a budget of €150 million foracquisitions over the next 18 months. During this period, it also expects to purchase the remaining25% in German subsidiary trans-o-flex out of this budget for a previously agreed price, Wais added.But it is not interested in acquisitions in Poland or Turkey due to strong competition betweenmajor players in those countries, he noted.
The group already has subsidiaries in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia,Germany, Netherlands and Belgium. The subsidiaries’ established brands will be maintained in theshort term, and Austrian Post will start to review group-wide branding in mid-2009, Wais added inresponse to questions.
Austrian Post currently generates 27% of group turnover outside Austria. The parcels andlogistics division generates 73% of its €739 million revenues outside Austria, with the bulk comingfrom Germany. The division’s EBIT margin, which dropped to 1.7% last year as B2C customers inAustria switched to new entrant Hermes, is targeted to improve to 2-3% this year and to 5% in2009/2010.
Carl-Gerold Mende, who will take up the position as board member responsible for parcels andlogistics in June, told journalists his top priorities would be to improve the division’sprofitability, build up the new Austrian B2B parcel service, and continue the European expansion.
Klaus Heinz, trans-o-flex managing director, said the German-based company, which generatesabout 55% of its €500 million revenues from healthcare/pharmaceuticals distribution, aimed to growto about €1 billion turnover as a niche specialist in the combi-freight (parcels and pallets)market, and continued to see good potential in the healthcare sector.
The European parcels network will be built around Eurodis, the trans-o-flex partner networkcovering 21 countries. This currently offers common products and has an integrated IT system, but alinehaul network will not be created, Wais said.
Eurodis GmbH, the network management company, is being opened up to the European partners totake financial stakes in order to strengthen its basis and reinforce mutual ties. Spanish partnerRedur Lozano has acquired a 20% stake in the company, leaving trans-o-flex and Austrian Post eachwith 40% of the stock. Both are prepared to halve their holdings to take other partners on board.
“We have re-launched Eurodis GmbH, the management company of our specialist 21-countrynetwork,” Heinz explained. “Now we are in a position to welcome our key international partners asshareholders with similar rights and obligations and to involve them in the development of thenetwork.”
While other international networks are usually managed and controlled from a single nationalperspective, Eurodis can become the first truly international alliance thanks to the equitableshareholding structure, according to Heinz. “Our target is to offer Spanish solutions in Spain,English ones in England and French solutions in France,” he commented.
Eurodis GmbH, headed by managing director Marc Hackländer, will also take on more managerialand operational responsibilities. In future it will manage the alliance and handle financialclearing between partners. It will also coordinate European tenders, maintain its own customerrelationships, oversee the creation of international products and marketing, set and monitoruniform quality standards and be responsible for the European network’s IT infrastructure,including track-and-trace.
“Increasing international integration and interdependence will cause much faster growth ininternational flows of goods in the EU than in domestic flows,” declared Heinz. “The new Eurodismeans we can make best possible use of the new opportunities which are resulting.”
At a product level, the newly-founded trans-o-flex Austria subsidiary will launch a domesticnext-day delivery service under the “Prime Paket” name in September, targeting the Austrian B2Bmarket where Austrian Post aims to grow its market share from 5% to 20% by 2011. Trans-o-flex willalso introduce its temperature-controlled and healthcare distribution service in Austria and partsof Eastern Europe.
Austrian Post is also expanding its operations in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It isinvesting in a 70,000 sqm distribution centre at Zilina, Slovakia, in connection with a contractwith Kia Motors to distribute spare parts from the latter’s factory there throughout the CEEregion. Zilina will also be used as a gateway to Poland and the Czech Republic, while Kosice,further east, will be a gateway to Ukraine. “Slovakia is playing a key role in our expansion,”commented Wais. In addition, a new logistics centre will be built in Zagreb in 2009.
In the mail market, Austrian Post aims to expand its direct marketing company Meiller Direktand information logistics firm Scanpoint with more added-value services such as data management,archiving and in-house post, Wais said. But Austrian Post had turned down the opportunity to buyGermany’s troubled privately-owned mail operator PIN Group, he noted. Wais commented that heexpects Deutsche Post to enter the Austrian domestic postal market upon full liberalisation in2011.
