International parcel and express service provider DPD celebrated its 40th birthday on April 1 this year.
The company was founded on 1 April 1976 as a joint venture by 18 leading freight forwarders. Within only a few years DPD had grown to become Germany's market leader in parcel shipping for business customers. DPD has maintained this position to the present day and – in line with the growth in online retailing – has developed into a major player in parcel shipping to private customers.
In 1976, the year it was founded, DPD already delivered 1.4 million parcels throughout Germany – today it delivers 3.6 million parcels every single day in an international network. The company has continuously developed its products and services, with parcel shipping to non-business consignees becoming increasingly important.
"Innovation is more essential than ever on today's e-commerce driven market," states DPD CEO Boris Winkelmann. "DPD is therefore taking a leading role in the digitalisation process and is demonstrating its pioneering capacity with innovative services – for example with the notification of a one-hour delivery window, flexible redirection options and map-based parcel tracking in real time."
At DPD, digital services are applied several million times a day – not just in Germany but in the company's entire international network. For example, the exact prediction of a one-hour delivery window is now available in 22 European countries. The essential infrastructure for parcel shipping to non-business consignees is also provided by a closely integrated network of more than 22,000 Pickup parcelshops in 14 countries. On a daily basis 800 distribution depots, 37,000 delivery vehicles and 624 cross-border linehaul operations provide an unparalleled network linking the various domestic markets.
DPD took its first steps towards international expansion in the early 1990s, while at the same time it was building up a network in Germany's new federal states. In the course of the company's international growth GeoPost, a subsidiary of France's La Poste, acquired a majority shareholding in DPD in 2001. GeoPost currently holds 93.79 per cent of the shares in DPD, with the remaining shares being owned by DPD Zeitfracht, one of the original founding partners. Today the DPD brand is prominently represented on all European markets in the new brand identity which was rolled out in March 2015 under the DPDgroup umbrella.
Over the past five years majority shareholder GeoPost has increased its turnover by 54%. In the year 2015 one billion parcels were for the first time shipped within the international network and GeoPost registered turnover of €5.7 billion euros – on a like-for-like basis this represents growth of 9.1% on the year before. With an increase of 8%, DPD in Germany was one of the main drivers of this growth.
