La Poste’s French express subsidiary Chronopost has expanded its operations with a new depot inCorsica, a partnership for export promotion and a new wine express delivery service.
Chronopost has opened a new depot in Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica, to maintain itscontinuous growth in the region equalling 5%-6% annually. The €1.3 million facility is the company’s biggest investment in property in 2009.
Constructed on an area of 5000 sqm, the 835 sqm facility includes an operational zone of 600sqm. The area of the building is 50% larger than the previous depot located in the industrial zoneof Vazzio. Thanks to the new sorting equipment, the sorting time of the parcels has been reducedalong with the number of pickings.
Offering direct access to the airport, the new depot allows higher productivity andsimplifies the work for the Chronopost team on site. Customers also benefit from improved sortingquality and reception. They can hand in their parcels until 19:00 for next-day delivery by 13:00across France.
The new depot counts 17 employees, including nine drivers who ensure the distribution of 1000parcels in southern Corsica with 13 delivery tours daily. As the leading express delivery providerin Corsica, Chronopost employs over 30 staff with two depots in Bastia and Ajaccio ensuring a totalsorting capacity of 2500 parcels daily including pick-up and distribution.
Separately, Chronopost has signed a cooperation agreement with Ubifrance, a French agency forinternational development of companies, to promote export activities of small and medium-sizedentreprises (SMEs) in France. In 2008, about 95,000 French companies sold their products abroad.Firms with less than 250 employees make up 90% of such exporters while 75% of those count less than20 staff.
The partnership will give Chronopost’s international services more visibility among customersof Ubifrance who are essentially SMEs focused on export. Chronopost will be listed in the catalogueof Ubifrance and invited to different communication events including conferences, round tables andfairs.
“This approach represents a logical step in Chronopost’s commitment towards SMEs. As aprivileged partner of these companies in terms of exportation on the domestic level, Chronopostreaffirms with this partnership its willingness to support them in international exports,”explained Chronopost CEO Christian Emery.
Ubifrance is a public industrial organisation with 6 regional offices in France and localpartners of Chambers of Commerce and Industry contributing to more mobility of companies in termsof export. It aims to expand its network to offer clients simpler and more efficient services.Through this cooperation, the agency will benefit from more presence via Chronopost communicationactivities and a cost reduction for international delivery of parcel shipments for its customers.
Meanwhile, Chronopost has launched a new express delivery service ‘Chrono Viti’ forwinemakers with the aim to double its revenues in the viticultural sector by 2010. Chronopost is atraditional partner for the wine industry with more than 1000 clients including wine producers,wholesalers, traders and online sellers who serve over 90,000 restaurants and other customers.
Chrono Viti provides express delivery before 10:00 within France in line with frequentdemands from barkeepers and winemakers or before 13:00 for the majority of clients in theviticultural sector, especially private customers. The parcels can be delivered to one of the 3,100Chrono Relais service points. For international express shipments, Chronopost offers delivery timesbetween one and four days with 230 destinations worldwide.
Thanks to its know-how and the knowledge of its customers’ needs, Chronopost is able toprovide complete express transportation of wine and champagne bottles. The completely recyclablepackaging solution ‘Vitibox’ for one, three or six bottles guarantees full protection againstdamage during transportation for all types of bottles of 75 cl.
