DHL Express Spain accused of price dumping by competitors

A price war has reportedly broken out between the main CEP operators in Spain in recent weeks,aggravated by the country’s economic crisis, with DHL Express allegedly being the main driver of

The journal reported that Spanish firms in the express and parcel industry are now looking forways to gain new customers as they become increasingly desperate due to the recent decline indemand caused by the worsening economic situation.

After the insolvency of Transportes Ochoa last month, which is the third Spanish parcel companyto go bankrupt, the €2.5 billion national parcel market is in bad shape, Transportes XXI reported.Prices have declined by 20-30%, with demand falling dramatically and it may be only a matter oftime before the next company in the Spanish parcel market goes down under the pressure.

According to Transportes XXI, several anonymous competitors have recently accused DHL Express ofinitiating an aggressive price policy in Spain, as the main driver of the ongoing price war. Theyclaimed that DHL profits the most from Ochoa’s bankruptcy, which they allege it also contributedto.

According to a field representative working at a leading company in the Spanish parcel industry,whose name wasn’t disclosed, DHL has taken the slogan of DHL Express Spain’s CEO Felipe Corcuera “never lose a customer because of prices” to the extreme by sending employees out to customers tooffer prices that are 10% lower than those of their current service provider. These measures totake on competitors can be attributed, sources claim, to DHL’s strong financial background and maybe a preparation for the firm abandoning the Spain’s domestic market, and are allegedly similar toDHL’s actions before leaving the UK’s and France’s domestic businesses.

DHL Spain and Deutsche Post have both denied these accusations. Regarding the insolvency ofOchoa, Corcuera commented: “At DHL, we do not know if the said situation is favourable for ourcompany to a greater or lesser extent than for other operators in this sector and, in any case,that is not the objective of DHL. Many clients have approached us as a service provider, lookingfor a company with a strong financial situation, which is the case with us. In fact, some of themhave already worked with DHL as their second service provider. In no way has DHL changed itspricing policy due to these circumstances.”