MRW, one of the leading Spanish express operators, has reaffirmed its ambitions to grow into amajor player in Latin America and gain a large share of the fast-growing Spanish e-commerce
market.In Latin America, MRW aims to become a market leader over the coming decade. Already present inVenezuela, where it grew 12% last year, it plans to enter Colombia, Peru and Chile throughsmall-scale acquisitions in the coming years, Spanish newspaper Cinco Días reported.
“Our objective is to convert ourselves over a period of 12-15 years into the leader of the LatinAmerican market,” director general Francisco Martín Villanueva said. “We are not interested inbuying major companies there but smaller ones in order to continue extending our franchise model,”he explained. While Spain is a mature market, “in Latin America there is a lot of potential”, headded.
MRW will also focus strongly on e-commerce in future, Martín Villanueva said. The company hadalready helped 2,800 small enterprises to set up online shops for electronic trading, he said. Lastyear MRW delivered four million e-commerce parcels and expects further strong growth this year. “In2011 we will achieve 20% of the online market, one year earlier than expected,” he announced.
Martin Villanueva, who replaced his father as director general of MRW in 2009, already announcedin early 2010 his ambitions to expand in South America and develop the company’s e-commerceservices.
MRW founder and president, Francisco Martín Frías, reiterated that the family did not intend tosell the company. “We have received offers from the French and the British but no foreign companywould maintain our current social activities,” he told the newspaper.
In 2010, MRW increased sales by 1.3% on the €585 million achieved in 2009, Spanish news agencyEFE reported. The company had originally hoped for a 3% sales rise last year after suffering a 10%drop in volumes in 2009 due to the recession in Spain.
MRW operates a network of 1,300 franchises with 10,000 workers and a fleet of more than 3,000vehicles in Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Gibraltar and Venezuela.
