Major British B2C parcels carrier Parcelnet is expanding into cross-border European distribution bylinking up with sister company Hermes after successfully integrating two major acquisitions in the
last two years, its managing director told CEP-Research in an interview.“We want to be part of the European network as part of Hermes,” managing director CaroleWoodhead said on the sidelines of last week’s Courier Parcel Logistics exhibition in London, whereParcelnet and Hermes had a joint stand. German-based Hermes is building up a European network withsister companies Parcelnet, Mondial Relay (France) and Porta a Porta (Italy) as well as itssubsidiary in Austria.
Parcelnet is currently testing cross-border deliveries from Britain to Germany for TVshopping company QVC, Woodhead said. “More British companies are interested in Europe, and thereare European customers with UK shipments,” she commented. The home delivery firm, which has so farused other European carriers for its cross-border shipments, is also in talks with France’s MondialRelay over cooperation. “In future we want a common service offer,” she added.
Parcelnet currently handles about 110 million parcels a year, has revenues of over £200million (€257 million) and “is a profitable company”, Woodhead stressed.
In its home market, Parcelnet has successfully completed the integration of Redcats, boughtin spring 2007, and of the TNT Post/JD Williams courier network, acquired earlier this year,Woodhead said. “Redcats expanded our capacity with three new depots. There was no capacityexpansion with TNT,” she noted. This expansion has left Parcelnet with a current network of 19depots and 7,000 so-called “lifestyle” couriers. These are subcontracted self-employed deliverystaff who are generally local people with in-depth knowledge of their area and their parcelcustomers.
The British B2C delivery market was “attractive and growing”, although the growth rates wereslowing “to some extent”, Woodhead pointed out. “The internet has been a huge driver,” she said.But she noted: “There is more competition from B2B companies. We are seeing some over-lapping ofB2B and B2C. This is good for customers and means more choice of services.”
In terms of products, Parcelnet offers two core services: a rapid 24-hour delivery and astandard 2-3 day delivery time. “A small number of larger customers use the 24-hour service, andsmaller customers use the 2-3 day service,” she pointed out. In addition, Parcelnet offers premiumoptions such as time-certain delivery (morning or afternoon).
The ongoing cooperation with DPD UK, branded “homecall”, enabled Parcelnet to target SMEs andwas “a growth area”, Woodhead said. Under the cooperation, DPD collects B2C shipments from itscustomers and hands them over to Parcelnet for final delivery.
