Major Spanish parcels carrier Seur achieved modest growth last year despite the country’s severeeconomic problems thanks to good growth in international and B2C deliveries.
The company, partly-owned by France’s La Poste, increased revenues by 2% to €558 million whilevolumes grew by the same figures to more than 50 million shipments in 2011.
Seur said the growth was a result of diversifying its core domestic B2B parcel deliveriesbusiness into three attractive new markets: international, B2C and added-value logistics. Thisoutweighed a slight decrease in income in its core business which was principally due to thedecrease in the weight of shipments and price adjustments.
International business, provided to 230 countries through the partnership with GeoPost, grew by8% to revenues of €75 million and now accounts for 13% of the company’s revenues.
Seur achieved fast growth in the B2C sector thanks for more deliveries for e-commerce clients.Its revenue grew 12% to €67 million, and the company now claims 30% of the Spanish B2C market. Thecompany aims to expand its B2C business to represent 30% of total revenues within the next fouryears.
The Madrid-based operator gained various Spanish B2C contracts last year, including Britishfashion operator Asos, shopping clubs Alice.es and VipVenta. It already delivers for well-knownbrands and websites, including Mango, Privalia, Ebay and Price Minister. It cooperates withPunto Pack, Spain’s biggest delivery point network, for B2C deliveries to alternativeaddresses.
The third growth area was value-added logistics as more Spanish firms started to outsource theirlogistics in order to reduce costs and improve operational management. Seur increased logisticsrevenues by 9% to €24 million, more than double the planned 4% growth rate. The business nowaccounts for 4% of its revenues.
In 2012, the company aims to continue growing in these three strategic focus areas and toincrease both volumes and revenues.
Seur claims to be the Spanish market leader, with more than 250 points of sale, 1,000convenience stores, a fleet of 3,700 vehicles and a team of 6,600 employees. The satisfaction indexof its 1.2 million clients lies at 93.5%, the highest score in the sector.
