Correos is speeding up e-commerce growth with a new three-year agreement to deliver Amazon parcels across Spain just days after a cross-border deal with Alibaba and as it prepares to move into Portugal.
The postal operator said yesterday that the aim of the agreement was to provide “an even faster and more reliable” parcel service for Amazon customers and was the result of close cooperation between the two companies in recent years.
For Correos, the agreement with the global e-commerce leader “confirms that it is firmly moving forward towards its objective of becoming the logistics operator of choice in the online commerce sector in Spain”. It claims to deliver about 49% of all e-commerce parcels to Spanish consumers.
Just last week the Spanish postal operator signed an agreement with Alibaba Group logistics subsidiary Cainiao Network and international e-commerce unit AliExpress to speed up parcel flows from China to Spain and to help Spanish SMEs to boost exports.
Meanwhile, state-owned Correos is awaiting official approval by the Spanish government for its planned acquisition of a 51% stake in Portuguese parcels and logistics company Grupo Rangel, which is the local FedEx service partner. The Spanish group wants to create a pan-Iberian network able to deliver parcels throughout the two countries within 24 hours.
CEO Juan Manuel Serrano, who took up the job last year, has embarked on a rapid growth strategy designed to reduce the traditional reliance on the declining mail business, expand parcel activities and diversify into new business areas.
In 2018, the Correos Group delivered a record number of more than 165 million parcels, including a 61% surge in core network volumes to 106 million items. Express parcels subsidiary Correos Express increased volumes by 16% to 59 million shipments.
The company delivers to homes and businesses across the country through a network of more than 30,000 postal delivery workers, has set up a network of 5,000 CityPaq parcel lockers and operates a network of 2,400 post offices.
Correos invested €20 million to expand capacity of its logistics centres last year and will spend a further €37 million this year on a new facility at Madrid International Airport, due to go into operation in 2020.
