The Kahala Posts Group (KPG), an alliance of 10 postal operators from Europe, Asia and America, hasagreed to promote and speed up the exchange of international parcels and develop services for the
growing e-commerce sector at a meeting held in Barcelona last week.The meeting of KPG’s Executive Committee was organised by the Spanish postal operatorCorreos. During the three-day meeting, the group analysed the present and future trends on theinternational parcel market, marked by new emerging sectors such as e-commerce, the increasingcomplexity of transport, and strong competition among operators.
During the meeting, the Kahala Posts members established guidelines to follow over the nextfew years, focusing to a great extent on the development of solutions to keep up with the growingdemand for e-commerce, launching new services in reverse logistics. These services will, amongothers, enable customers to return their purchases ordered online if they are not satisfied withthe product and simplify customs clearance. In this way, the postal operators said they woulddedicate themselves to international services that each of them already offers in their respectivelocal markets.
Correos said the success of the Kahala Posts alliance during the last few years would nothave been possible in the competitive international parcels market without its operationalexcellence. As a result, the presidents of the individual postal operators that make up the unionhave renewed their commitment towards maintaining and improving quality levels, with the aim ofensuring that 95% of all international parcels are delivered within the agreed time.
“Transportation is one of the major challenges the international parcel market is facing, ina scenario characterised by rising oil prices, the elimination of unprofitable routes and capacityproblems in seasons when transport demand is higher,” Correos explained. “To turn these challengesinto opportunities, the Kahala Posts Group is committed to working in a coordinated manner toachieve strategic and commercial agreements with major airlines, not only for internationaltransport but also to manage operations at the airports.”
In the Kahala Group’s business plan 2011-2014, Correos, which led the Kahala Posts’ meetingthis year, identified the parcel business as one of four key markets in which to improve itsposition and grow its market share.
On the international level, the partnership with the Kahala Posts Group was one of the mostimportant strategic growth vehicles for Correos in the cross-border parcel market, providing verycompetitive import and export services in terms of quality and price to private customers as wellas to SMEs and large companies, Correos added.
Kahala Posts Group was founded nine years ago by the postal operators from Australia, China,Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and the United States, with Royal Mail joining the group in 2006. Singaporeand France were added in 2009. KPG manages more than 24 million items per year and generated volumegrowth of over 10% in 2010.
