German courier, express and parcel operators are optimistic for 2009 despite the economicrecession, according to a survey commissioned by the country’s postal regulator. Europe’s biggest
CEP market grew 3.6% in 2008, the survey found.More than 60% of companies surveyed said they expected their business to develop eitherbetter than or similarly to last year during 2009. The in-depth survey, commissioned by theBundesnetzagentur and conducted by consultancy MRU, was carried out between October 2008 andJanuary 2009.
In 2008, the German CEP market grew by 3.6% to turnover of €17.4 billion, according to thesurvey. This was significantly more than German GDP growth of 1.3%. The market has grown by 6.8% onaverage since 1999, and more than 259,000 people are now employed in the sector.
The largest segment is the parcels market with turnover of €6.7 billion (2007). The maingrowth driver is the mail-order business, although some forecasts about the impact of e-commerce onparcel volumes have proved over-optimistic, according to the survey.
There are two main and counteracting trends in the growing express market, which had turnoverof €6.4 billion in 2007. Express carriers are profiting from global trade and rising demand fortime-definite services, which is clearly outweighing the increasing competitive pressure fromparcel operators which have improved their services.
In the small courier segment (€3.5 billion), traditional city courier deliveries now onlyrepresent a small proportion of business and the importance of direct deliveries, both national andinternational, has increased significantly.
German CEP companies highlighted price competition and regulatory rules as their two majorproblems. Nearly two-thirds of companies surveyed were unable to even increase prices to compensatefor inflation in 2007 despite the market growth, the survey discovered.
