La Poste’s subsidiary GeoPost grew strongly last year and will continue to mix strategicacquisitions with organic growth under its ambition to move up from second place to become Europe’s
largest express parcels operator.The B2B operator increased sales by 6.6% (in comparable terms) to €3,668 million in 2011 whilevolumes rose 6.8% to more than 680 million parcels shipped throughout the DPD network. GeoPostgenerated 72% of its revenues outside France.
As a whole, La Poste increased its overall express and parcel revenues, including the separateFrench subsidiary ColiPoste, by 7.4% to €5.2 billion and the divisional operating profit rose 15%to €387 million. This was a 7.4% operating margin, compared to 6.9% in 2010. ColiPoste’s sales grew5.5% to €1.53 billion.
These figures meant the group successfully defended its position as the second-largest parcelsoperator in Europe, La Poste wrote in its newly-published 2011 report. The group had 14.8% of theEuropean market in 2010, while GeoPost was already the market leader for European domestic marketswith 17.3%, it added, citing internal figures.
Outlining its strategy for the business division, La Poste said that GeoPost would makestrategically sensible acquisitions to improve its geographical or business coverage and aim toincrease market shares. “The ambition of GeoPost is to be the leader in this sector in Europe,” theFrench postal group declared.
La Poste also said it expected market consolidation to continue in future in the light of theUPS offer for TNT Express. DHL, GeoPost, TNT Express and GLS already have 50% of the Europeanmarket, while this figure would rise to 60% if UPS was included, it noted. “The market is alreadyrelatively consolidated, but it is still much less so in comparison to the American market wheretwo players share 95% of the market. Consolidation is thus likely to continue.”
GeoPost grew in nearly all European markets last year. Exceptional growth was recorded in theUnited Kingdom, where GeoPost UK succeeded in generating new business at a record level. Sales weresupported by the local Predict Service, which managed to deliver almost 97% of all parcels in thepre-announced one-hour delivery window. DPD Germany recorded record volumes in 2011, transportingan average of 70,000 parcels more each working day than during the year before.
In Eastern Europe, DPD Poland was able to establish itself in second place on the domesticmarket, while DPD Czech Republic proved to be extremely successful creating a market-leadinge-commerce solution, as well as increasing its DPD Private B2C solution by 62%.
In the Netherlands, a major milestone was achieved by the opening of the “New Holland Hub”.Together with the crucial new depots and hubs which are currently under construction near Colognein Germany and Lodz in Poland, for example, this will add even greater efficiency to the company’sEuropean road network. The new hub near Lodz will be the biggest of its kind in Eastern Europe andthe depot in Erftstadt near Cologne will secure DPD’s business in Germany and beyond.
In the southern parts of the continent, which have been severely affected by the financial andeconomic crisis, business developed less dynamically. Nevertheless DPD’s associate company SEUR wasable to defend its status as the most profitable parcel operator in Spain and retained its positionas the market leader.
