DHL Express India is consolidating its position as the top player in international and courier deliver service by expanding its network in the country.

The company recently inaugurated a new service centre facility in Sriperumbudur and plans to add six more this year across India, according to RS Subramanian, Senior Vice-President and Managing Director, DHL Express.

“We have taken a share from our competition in the last few years. We now have nearly 50 per cent market share in the ₹4,000-crore express delivery services. We are bigger than the next three players put together in India,” he told BusinessLine .

DHL competes with international companies like Fedex, TNT and UPS. Indian brand Gati competes as well, in a business which is quite fragmented with a large number of local players.

It handles nearly 60,000 shipments a day (both inbound and outbound). In 2013, it handled nearly 12 million shipments as against 10 million in the previous year.

“We have maintained our leadership position in India for over 35 years by providing access to 650 cities and over 33,000 locations,” he said. DHL India’s customers include importers, exporters, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, wholesalers and small- and medium-sized units, Subramanian said.

The 8,000-sqft centre at Sriperumbudur has a capacity to handle over 100,000 shipments a year. The new centre will add capacity and support DHL’s growth in international time-definite delivery volumes to and from Sriperumbudur and surrounding industrial belt, a major auto cluster.

Typically, the service centre facility is DHL’s local pickup, delivery and sorting centre and caters to customer requirements for same-day delivery, he said.

DHL has a network of over 350 fleet vehicles on road, 19 dedicated DHL network flights and 100 commercial flights a week. Customers have access to an international network of 220 countries and territories where DHL has a presence.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW