DHL Parcel might exit Austria, reports claim

DHL Parcel has reportedly stopped its €100 million expansion in Austria and might even exit the market as key client Amazon builds up its own deliveries in the country.

Austrian media reported this week that the Deutsche Post DHL’s international parcels unit, now headed by Ken Allen, had stopped its expansion and “an exit will probably follow soon”.

A Deutsche Post DHL spokesman told CEP-Research today that “we are not commenting on this speculation”.

DHL Parcel entered the Austrian market in 2015 as part of its expansion into various European markets and with Amazon as a major customer. The company quickly became the second-largest B2C delivery operator in Austria and had a market share of 27% last year, according to an annual market survey by consultants Kreutzer Fischer & Partner. This gave Austrian Post 47%, Hermes 12% and DPD 10% of the consumer parcels market.

The German group announced in 2015 that it would invest €100 million in the neighbouring country to build up an operational network. Two sorting centres have so far gone into operation, near Vienna and near Graz in the south of the country, and the third, at Enns close to Linz, is due to go into operation this summer.

However, Amazon is now building up its own Austrian logistics and delivery operation, based on a new fulfilment centre near Vienna. The e-commerce giant started deliveries in the capital last autumn.