Calculated in euros, the turnover of the courier company held by Felix Patrascanu, and brothers Adrian and Neculai Mihai rose by less than 5%, with the Romanian leu depreciating by 5% against the euro last year.
“We recorded a 10% turnover rise, as planned. We are very happy with last year’s turnover of around RON244 million,” Felix Patrascanu, managing director and one of the shareholders of Fan Courier, told ZF.
Patrascanu says the market also recorded a slight rise last year and that the sector’s prospects are optimistic. “On the courier market things are dynamic, the market is on the rise, so the overall turnover of market players was somewhere towards EUR210 million in 2012,” added the Fan Courier shareholder.
Online orders, as well as the launch of new services were the main growth drivers in 2012, as e-commerce is gaining ground because a lot of companies are also developing an online shop alongside a traditional one. “Online sales generated 20% of our turnover last year and for 2013 we expect them to account for around 30% of revenues,” Patrascanu said.
The last two months of the year were the best for the Romanian courier market, with the high point being the Black Friday shopping event, which generated an up to 50% rise in the number of deliveries.
“While normally we deliver around 60,000 parcels per day, the number of deliveries climbed to 75,000 for Black Friday,” Patrascanu added.
For this year the shareholders of FAN Courier have budgeted a 10% turnover increase and say they have already started new investment projects. One of the company’s targets for 2013 is to develop the C2C (consumer to consumer) segment, with Fan Courier having started negotiations with major local retailers to introduce collect points in their stores, through which individuals can deliver mail and pay per SMS.
The project was launched 3-4 months ago together with the Inmedio group and Patrascanu says the service will be available shortly in OMV oil stations and Mega Image Shop & Go stores.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)