Appel: DHL forwarding unit not for sale

After costly “mistakes” in the roll out of a unified IT platform, the freight forwarding division of Deutsche Post DHL Group has a clearer path forward, CEO Frank Appel told the TPM 2016 conference in Long Beach, Calif.    Frank Appel, the chief executive of Deutsche Post DHL Group, on Monday said reports that the company might sell its freight forwarding division were “nonsense.”
   “We have no intention, there were no discussions, around that we are selling our DGFF (DHL Global Forwarding, Freight) division. We will keep that. We are very proud that we have a market leader division,” said Appel, who was the keynote speaker at the TPM 2016 conference in Long Beach on Monday.
   “Yes, we had some challenges, we made some mistakes we corrected them,” he said. “We now have a much clearer path. We have found a better approach.”
   “It didn’t work in the first place, but if you want to innovate, if you want to be innovative you make mistakes once in a while,” added Appel. “Sometimes, unfortunately, it’s costly as well. But then you should forgive yourself and go on, and we are doing that.”
   In October 2015, DHL took a massive writedown of assets and charges related to the failed roll out of a unified information technology platform.
   “Given the decreased likelihood that DHL Global Forwarding will be able to realize benefits from the New Forwarding Environment (NFE) system in its current state, the Group will recognize in the result of the first nine months of 2015 one-off effects of a total of EUR 345 million” (U.S. $375 million), the company said at the time.
   DHL said it would “implement a step-by-step replacement and upgrade of its IT set-up. This could rely on a flexible IT architecture, potentially enhancing and converging existing systems and also incorporating advanced ‘off-the-shelf’ solutions that have been commercially proven within the freight forwarding sector.”
   “I can definitely say, there were no discussions with anybody, there will be no discussions, we will improve the performance of the DGFF division ourselves, and we are very confident we can make that happen because we are so proud that Danzas was one of the founders of the industry and still is very successful,” Appel insisted. 
    Formerly known as DHL Danzas Air & Ocean, DHL Global Forwarding was originally founded by Louis Danzas in 1815.