Dutch postal group PostNL has bought Hermes’ minority stake of 29% in the German mail company Postcon National to gain full ownership of the business, while Hermes has invested separately in upgraded warehousing in Germany.
PostNL and Hermes spokesmen confirmed the deal to CEP-Research today but declined to reveal the price and the date of the transaction. Postcon National handles the key accounts business within the Postcon Group.
Last week, PostNL already announced its decision to buy out the minority shareholder of Postcon National but didn’t name the company at that stage. It also decided to sell the last-mile operations in Frankfurt. Both transactions are subject to the approval from the relevant authorities.
Postcon announced separately that the last-mile operation in Frankfurt will be sold to Mainversand GmbH, leaving it to focus on last-mile deliveries in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany's most populated regional state.
PostNL said it decided to continue to invest in its German operations (Postcon), based on the improved performance of the business. Last year it sold off its British mail subsidiary Whistl but retained the Italian business Nexive following a strategic review of its international activities.
PostNL expects Postcon to be break-even in 2016 and to contribute to its cash profitability in the years thereafter. Based in Ratingen, the German company, with 2,700 employees (2,100 FTEs), has turnover of €494 million and delivers one billion letters a year for more than 4,000 clients to more than 20 million households across the country. It holds a share of around 8% in the German mail market which is dominated by Deutsche Post DHL.
Meanwhile, Hermes Fulfilment, the e-commerce unit of the Hermes Group, has installed new picking and sorting technology, dedicated to fashion articles, at its major logistics facility in Haldensleben, Germany, with the parent company Otto Group investing around €15 million in the new equipment.
At the 30,000 sqm facility, Hermes Fulfilment essentially stores goods from fashion retailers that are not part of the Otto Group. In future, 600,000 storage locations – 540,000 for folded garments and 60,000 for hanging clothing – will be available there. Until now, the warehousing and shipping of the fashion articles were done manually. The new technology has been installed to enable staff on site to cope with the increasing number of orders from end-customers.
Dieter Urbanke, managing director of Hermes Fulfilment, said: “By means of the new technology, we are increasing the handling capacity from 12 million to 35 million items per year. The advantage for the end-customers is that orders arriving by 3pm are processed on the same day. This way, the ordered goods reach the buyer on the next day.
“We are thus well prepared for the challenges of the modern e-commerce and for the growing business of fashion retailers," he concluded.
