Objectives
1st Steadily improving customer service
The overriding goal of DHL Endeavour’s in the field of express delivery is to satisfy their
customers. With the help of our Group-wide First Choice program, they work to ensure that
they meet their customers’ high demands for speed, reliability and cost efficiency. Using
standardized systems and processes, they have increased the productivity of their sales
organization and thus significantly lowered costs. They also called and visited their customers
more frequently in person. The fact that they have become better is evidenced by the more
than 120 awards they received from external experts in 2009, including renowned awards such
as China Best Call Centre, Best Manager and Best Agent. The service at their customer service
centre’s is tested and evaluated by their own employees as part of their mystery shopper
program. They also conduct customer satisfaction surveys on a regular basis to help them adapt
quickly to customer needs and requirements.
2nd Increasing profitability and productivity
The core element of their strategy is their International Time Definite air traffic network. They
offer competitive pricing and first-rate service on all the major trade lanes. As a profitable
express service provider, they are constantly optimizing their performance standards and their
costs in order to expand their market leadership.
Specifically, this means:
• Lowering operating costs. They are improving processes and fleet management through a
variety of global, regional and local initiatives. Their costs per unit have dropped by around 12
% as a result. To reduce indirect costs, they have streamlined their structures considerably and
have continued to standardize processes.
• Integrating it platforms. They have standardized numerous systems in all regions in order to
optimize interfaces and maintenance costs. In the USA, for instance, they replaced 400 legacy
systems with 100 global applications, reducing not only current IT costs but future costs as well.
They also adapt their technology to the needs of their customers. Today, more than 50,000
customers can track their shipment status online and by mobile telephone in more than 40
countries using their proview e-commerce solution. In 2010, they will make their e-commerce
applications even more user-friendly and easily accessible.
• Optimizing processes. Under the umbrella of their Global Standard Operating Procedure
Program, they define worldwide process standards for their entire supply chain, from pickup to
delivery. Internally, they make regular checks of whether these standards are being adhered to.
Their stuff also developing systems to increase efficiency. In Berlin, for instance, the Smart
Truck has been in use since March 2009.
This vehicle is equipped with a dynamic route calculation program that allows the driver to
react quickly to traffic situations and customer requests.
• Streamlining the portfolio. In order to increase their profitability and sustain it, they regularly
examine their product and business portfolio with an eye towards divesting unprofitable
products and markets. Therefore, they decided to sell their DDD business in the UK to Home
Delivery Network. Sustainable market leadership in their TDI and Same Day Express service will
remain their focus in the UK, and they are looking for potential buyers of their DDD business in
France. They are confident that these are the right and necessary steps to ensure the
competitive edge of our local British and French units and of DHL Express in general.
3rd Strengthening their corporate culture
Their employees represent their main competitive advantage. They promote their principle of
Respect and Results as part of their corporate culture and have made it their aim to be amongst
the most attractive employers wherever they operate. In the Americas region, for instance,
they have already won several prestigious awards for Best Place to Work. Employee turnover
continues to decline in this region.
They are well positioned in their markets thanks to their product offering in air, ocean and road
transport. Their goal is to achieve steady, organic growth in excess of the market average.
To this end, they pursue three approaches:
Bolstering their presence in growth markets
They are fine tuning their network in areas where they see the greatest growth opportunities,
particularly in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. In 2009, for instance, they added
four countries to their African network and opened 19 new locations in China and their own
offices in Pakistan. They are also adding transport and charter agreements to their range of
services on the expanding trade lanes that connect these regions. In their ocean freight
business, they are enlarging their tightly woven LCL network, which at present offers
approximately 1,000 routes per week.
Creating sector-specific solutions
They develop transport solutions that meet the needs of specific industries. In the year under
review, these mostly focused on the fashion and apparel, oil and gas, wine and spirits,
pharmaceuticals and technology industries. Together with industry experts, they have set up
competence centres for the fashion and apparel industry in key Asian markets such as India,
Vietnam, Cambodia and Hong Kong. They maintain similar facilities for the oil and gas industry
in Singapore and Houston.
Modernizing their infrastructure
They are investing in a networked IT infrastructure and new technologies. They offer customers
in the retail sector and consumer goods industry a complete overview of their procurement and
ordering processes at every link of the supply chain.
4th Profitable growth in all markets
In the future they will continue to take advantage of their capabilities and competencies to
build on their leading market position. Their goal is to achieve long-term profitable growth in all
of their markets and to supply high-quality services. In order to improve their profitability, they
will continue the 5 to Thrive program which was launched in early 2009 and which aims to
reduce costs and enhance operational excellence.
5th Long-lasting partnerships with customers
They strive to build lasting partnerships with their customers, and they intend to position
themselves as a leading innovator in contract logistics. The end-to-end outsourcing solutions
they offer for the NHS and British Airways are examples of how they will accomplish this.
6th Improving processes – always
They aim to develop and launch new products in each sector they focus on. They strive for
operational excellence by continuously examining and improving our processes and by applying
their best practice project management methodologies. They are always looking to improve the
performance of their sales organization and our operational platform. For instance, in 2009
they launched a rationalization program to reduce the number of IT systems and thereby lower
maintenance, installation and training costs.
7th Securing their core business
They cut costs wherever possible and sensible, and enhance their business by launching new
products and perpetuating strong customer relationships. They also retain the high quality of
their services whilst protecting the environment. Ideally, they search for solutions that meet
several goals at once: a new generation of machines in their mail centres, for instance, not only
raises the level of automation and thus quality but also lowers production costs and carbon
(CO2) emissions.
Proximity to their customers is important to them. They operate the largest network by far of
fixed-location retail outlets in Germany, consisting of some 17,000 outlets and sales points.
They are expanding their partnerships with retailers, and they offer fast and easy online access
to their mail and parcel services. Over the next three years, they will expand their network of
around 2,500 Pack stations by another 150 machines.
8th Making their network more flexible
To ensure that the earnings contribution of their mail business remains stable in the future as
well, they need to fundamentally change their network to make the costs more flexible. In
2010, they tested procedures for enabling them to respond to fluctuating or declining volumes
without sacrificing quality. During the summer holiday period, they combined carrier routes,
relocated mail sorting to neighboring mail centres and downsized our overnight airmail
network. They will repeat those procedures that proved effective as necessary. Moreover, they
plan to expand their parcel network and render it more flexible in the interests of their
customers.
9th Growing in digital markets
They are taking advantage of our expertise in physical communications to offer competent
electronic communications. The internet is already facilitating customer access to their services.
They can calculate and purchase postage and also locate retail outlets and Packstations online
and by mobile telephone. In addition, starting in 2011 they will begin offering the letter on the
internet, a binding, confidential and reliable form of written electronic communication.
They intend to continue participating in the growing internet advertising market. They already
offer small and medium-sized enterprises a platform for local services at www.allesnebenan.de
as well as the option of calculating costs and placing advertisements in a variety of media using
our easy-to-use Werbemanager (advertising manager). In their parcel business, they are
developing solutions for internet sales. Customers can go to www.meinpaket.de for easy,
secure and transparent online purchasing and payment. Parcel recipients receive advance
notifications of when their parcels will arrive. In the future, they will even be able to choose
where and when they wish to receive their parcels.
2011
WHAT they INTEND TO ACHIEVE
Provided that there is a moderate recovery in trade volumes, they expect consolidated ebit before
non-recurring items to reach € 1.6 billion to € 1.9 billion in 2011. Both pillars of their business –
Deutsche Post and DHL – should contribute nearly equally to these results. They will increase
their investments cautiously to approximately € 1.4 billion and use them for organic growth.
Although their liquidity position will decline due to restructuring expenditure, it will remain
strong. Consolidated net profit is expected to continue to improve in line with their operating
business.
Ebit before non-recurring items
• Group: € 1.6 billion to € 1.9 billion.
• Mail division: € 1.0 billion to € 1.2 billion.
• DHL divisions: € 1.0 billion to € 1.1 billion.
• Corporate Center / Other: approximately € – 0.4 billion.
Consolidated net profit
• improve net profit in line with operating business.
Capital expenditure (capex)
• Approximately € 1.4 billion.
Deutsche Post DHL’s goal is clear. they intend to win over their customers again
and again every day all over the world, and they will do this by living their
convictions: making transparent offers that simplify people’s lives; providing easy
access to transport services for letters, parcels, goods and information – the
things that bind the world together; and managing integrated services and
solutions that provide sustainable benefits and help to protect the world’s
resources. Their workforce – some 500,000 strong in more than 220 countries and
territories – live these convictions and are the heart of our many ideas, innovative
products and new technologies. By respecting people, the environment and our
society, we are delivering results for everyone.
