The Hindu Business Line : DHL Express opens integrated terminal at Bangalore airport

Bangalore, Nov. 20 The slowdown in the economy, which affected DHL’s volume, would not result in the company reducing its large employee strength across the four verticals — DHL Express, DJ: Global Forwarding, DHL Exel Supply Chain and Blue Dart.

The Indian subsidiary, with current employee strength of 10,000, had recently announced a major capital expansion of Rs 1,000 crore over the next five years. DHL Express, which announced the opening of its new facility at the Bangalore International Airport at a cost of $25 million, was in fact confident of a turnaround in the economy to help justify its investment.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday to announce the opening of the first integrated terminal, to provide a seamless service between the domestic and international movements, Mr Malcolm Monteiro, Senior Vice-President and Area Director- South Asia, said the economy had only slowed down. In the short term, he said the company could experience a nominal pressure on margins due to high fixed cost not aided by expected volume growth.

The company had already invested $300 million since 2003 to keep pace with the high growth in the economy on infrastructure across its seven hubs and seven aircraft.

The express and logistics industry had witnessed a decline in growth by seven to nine per cent due to downturn in the manufacturing and services, but with the DHL group, having positioned itself in the premium service segment with quality and reliance in delivery, did not feel the heat much.

DHL Express would be looking at Hyderabad as its next destination for its integrated facility while Mumbai and Delhi would be next depending on the availability of land.

The Bangalore facility, built in a 2.25 lakh sq.ft space, is expected to improve the service by reducing throughput time of 60 minutes, thereby achieving cost efficiency. The combined facility, helping in seamless handling of inbound and outbound international and domestics shipment and faster customs clearance, is equipped to accommodate future growth over the next 10 years.

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