The leader of the market that could reach EUR350 million this year, Fan Courier, posted 183 million lei (EUR41 million) revenue in the first half, an increase of 21% on the year-ago period.
The officials of the company held by Adrian and Neculai Mihai and Felix Patrascanu told ZF that the main reason for the growth was the online commerce.
The year 2015, which Fan Courier set out to end with growth of 15%, should thus become the eight year of growth in a row for the company, according to ZF’s calculations.
Another company that ended the first half with higher revenue is Urgent Cargus, which was formed by the merger of Urgent Curier and Cargus International, two companies under the umbrella of private equity fund Abris Capital Partners.
The merger, which took place this year, created a big enough player to breathe down Fan Courier’s neck. Urgent Cargus posted RON164 million revenue in the first half, 21% more than in the same time last year. Urgent Cargus has partnerships in place with eMag, Avon, Oriflame and Depanero, which boosted its shipment volume.
Fan Courier was only RON20 million ahead of Urgent Cargus in the first half.
A contender for the top position is Germany’s DHL, which posted RON229 million revenue last year. There is no data available about its first half performance, though. DHL is the company that sold Cargus to Abris Capital Partners in 2012, allowing it to expand in Romania. Abris continued expansion by buying customer portfolios of TCE Logistica, CRX and OTTO eventually buying Urgent Curier.
Delivery Solutions, known as Sameday Courier, posted growth of 28% to RON4.4 million in the first half.
Another company to have had a better first half was Dynamic Parcel Distribution (DPD Romania), part of the DPDgroup, the European express delivery leader. Lucian Aldescu, chief executive officer of DPD Romania has recently said on ZF Live that the first two quarters of the year ended with double-digit growth, though not as high as company would have liked.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)