Spanish courier firm Tourline Express grows 30% in 2005

Tourline Express, the Spanish courier firm bought by the Portuguese post office Correios lastyear, grew 30 per cent in 2005. It was the third year in a row that the Barcelona-based firm had

Tourline Express said in a statement that it increased revenues by 29.6 per cent to €105 millionwhile its volumes rose 23 per cent to 6.1 million items. Growth was driven by the company’sgeographical expansion across Spain and Portugal, it said. Tourline Express opened 37 new branches,taking its network to 284 franchise outlets.

In 2006, the express firm plans to open a further 35 new offices, and has already inauguratedseven new outlets in the first two months of this year. Its medium-term objective is to create anIberian network with up to 500 franchise branches.

Tourline Express has also put a new real-time online tracking system into operation, introduceda customer card scheme Tourline Plus, re-launched its corporate website and created aninternational sales department. Tourline Express and Correios integrated their domestic expressnetworks into an Iberian network last autumn.