Deutsche Post, UPS battle for express market shares in Europe

Deutsche Post, UPS battle for express market shares in Europe    Arch rivals Deutsche Post and UPS are among the six largest “pan-European express companies,” with UPS ranked as the second-largest in the German express market, a new report from Datamonitor said.
   Datamonitor’s “Europe Express Benchmarking 2004” report said Deutsche Post, including its express unit DHL, remained the largest provider of parcel services in Europe during 2003, with 18.4 percent share of the market. But UPS was not far behind, with 6 percent of the market, a share that makes it the fifth-largest express operator in Europe.
   The top six players in Europe’s 34-billion-euro ($46-billion) express market, ranked by market share, are: Deutsche Post, La Poste/GeoPost, TPG/TNT, Royal Mail, UPS and FedEx. FedEx’s share was 2 percent in 2003.
   “In the majority of European countries the market leader is the incumbent national postal operator followed by DHL,” Datamonitor said.
   In Germany, Deutsche Post’s home market, the German postal operator is the biggest express operator, with an estimated market share of 24.6 percent. UPS Germany is second with a 9.2-percent market share.
   Datamonitor said its latest findings show the European express market is consolidating. The top six players in the industry now account for more than 50 percent of Europe’s express revenues, up from 44 percent in 2001.