Hermes expects a double-digit parcel volume increase during the peak Christmas period across Europe, including even stronger growth in the UK, kicked off by high volumes from tomorrow’s Black Friday online shopping extravaganza.
With the peak Christmas season officially starting in October, Hermes’ subsidiaries in Austria, the UK, Russia and Italy are prepared to ship on average 25% more parcels than during the rest of the year. Year-on-year peak volume growth is forecast to be 15% in Germany and as much as 20% in the UK.
Besides private parcels and online orders to be delivered on time for Christmas, this also includes returns after the holiday. To prepare for the “parcels flood”, the country subsidiaries are currently expanding their delivery capacity at many locations.
"We are delighted with the positive development of the ongoing Christmas business. It highlights the encouraging performance of our European parcel companies during this current financial year in general," Marc Dessing, COO of Hermes Europe GmbH, said.
"In 2015, we successfully pushed ahead with our strategy of international expansion in the key growth markets. On top of traditional home deliveries, this includes our flourishing network of parcel shops that has now become the largest 2C network in Europe, with currently over 37,000 shops. For many customers, the Hermes parcel shop has established itself as the preferred alternative delivery address – and not just at Christmas time,” he added.
In Germany, Hermes expects to transport around 36 million parcels by the end of the year, a 15% increase on its record-breaking Christmas period in 2014. To cope with the increase, 5,400 more workers and 3,300 more vehicles have been deployed in the country.
In Austria, the company also has high expectations with the current volume increase already amounting to 15%. For the first time, Hermes is now also offering deliveries on Saturdays in the country serving Austrian customers six days a week.
Parcel volume growth is expected to be particularly strong in the UK with 32% more shipments to be delivered during the peak period compared to normal operations. This would mean an increase of 20% compared to last year’s peak period. At its central hub in Warrington, 500,000 more parcels are expected to be processed every day. A particular challenge is 'Black Friday' on 27th November (tomorrow).
Hermes UK CEO Carole Woodhead commented on Black Friday trends: “We are expecting this year to be 100% busier (a 100% increase in order and transport volumes) than last year. So we have been making lots of investment in our operations, in extra people, in new systems and we expanded our hub in the north to be able to handle half a million more parcels every night.”
Hermes UK has also been extending its parcel shop network in the country over the last year with its 4,500th parcel shop to be opened in December. “That puts 92% of the population within two miles of a Hermes parcel shop to allow them to use the Click&Collect solution,” she said.
In addition to the increasing use of mobile for ordering parcels online and Click&Collect as the most common e-commerce trends in the UK, Woodhead highlighted the selection of time windows, with customers increasingly saying (about 91%) that the most important thing for them in delivery is to have an allocated time window for their parcel to arrive.
“We have also launched a new time window service we are calling ETA (estimated time of arrival) which we are currently trialling with ten retail clients. In 2016, it will go live to all our retailers and we will be giving our customers on the day of delivery a time window when we will be delivering their parcel to home.”
In terms of the company’s growth, Woodhead said: “Hermes UK has been growing by about 15% each year for the last six years. We plan to continue good rates of growth.
“We have been expanding our network through the investment in new hub capacity in Warrington which gives us more sortation capacity. And in 2017, we’ll start to build a new hub in Rugby which is a £35 million investment and will allow us to double our hub capacity and it will be live before the peak of 2017.”
When asked about what makes Hermes UK special as a company, Woodhead concluded: “Hermes UK has a very clear focus: we are clear on our strategy, we have a great flexible courier model that is the core of our home delivery solution and we have really passionate people who work so hard for our organisation and really want to deliver the best possible service that they can. And that really makes the difference.”
