Demand for parcel delivery in Romania, as well as abroad posted a two-digit increase in the first two weeks of December against the year-earlier period.
“We have 115-130,000 deliveries per day during this period, compared with 90,000 deliveries in December 2013. We beat all records during this period,” stated Felix Patrascanu, a stakeholder in FAN Courier together with Adrian Mihai and Neculai Mihai.
On a normal day, FAN Courier, leader of the local market, with revenue of around RON280 million last year (EUR63 million), operates 80,000 deliveries on average.
The parcels the company delivers during this period include electrical home appliances, IT products, clothes and even dog food, according to Felix Patrascanu, who specifies that online stores have a significant contribution to total orders, of around 30%. In 2008, e-commerce contributed just 5% to the company’s revenue.
“The market is growing and I believe the trend will maintain next year,” said Patrascanu. FAN Courier expects revenue to rise by 16% next year amid orders coming from online retailers.
“For our company, December brings a further increase of volumes shipped and delivered to final clients. The main increase comes from the area of online stores we work with. We believe we will have a 60% increase during this period against the same period of 2013, with a peak in the December 18-24 week,” stated the representatives of Urgent Cargus company that emerged from the merger of Cargus International and Urgent Curier, bought by investment fund Abris Capital Partners.,
DPD officials also say sales have risen so far this month from the similar period of last year. “Sales and the number of delivered parcels have risen against last year,” said the officials of DPD, with revenue of RON64.8 million (EUR14.7 million) last year.
Demand has risen this month not only on internal deliveries, but also for international ones. “Against the year-earlier period, volumes registered a two-digit growth rate,” said Bogdan Dragatoiu, sales&marketing manager of TNT Romania, a company operating mainly on the segment of international deliveries.
In 2013, the company posted revenue worth RON164 million (EUR37 million), almost flat from the previous year, and profit worth RON11.5 million (EUR2.6 million), up around 2%, according to Finance Ministry data.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)