Dutch group PostNL could be ready to invest in innovative start-ups in areas such as same-day and food deliveries to broaden its range of e-commerce logistics services.
The company, which is now pursuing a standalone strategy after bpost’s failed offer last autumn, is trying to refocus its portfolio on e-commerce services and away from the declining mail business, said Pim Berendsen, head of international, innovation and M&A.
“We need to find new niches and new pockets of growth. E-commerce plays a crucial role,” he told this week’s European Post & Parcel Services conference in Amsterdam.
This means changing the traditional focus from the business client, who pays the bill, to consumers buying the client’s products and services. “We have to understand the customer behind our customer. So there’s more focus on the customer journey, what they are using and doing,” he explained.
PostNL is also adapting its approach in terms of acquisitions, Berendsen said. In the past, the company had secured 100% control, integrated the business and added it to the overall portfolio.
“But if we see growth beyond the (traditional) core business, then we have to take a different approach.” This means more partnerships, for example, with start-ups on different initiatives instead of “trying to do everything ourselves”. “We want to speed up innovations. The slogan is ‘stop talking, start trying’,” he commented.
For example, PostNL is open for investments in the area of food deliveries. Berendsen said that PostNL already had 100,000 food deliveries, mostly groceries, through its standard parcels network last year. Now it is building up a dedicated network for temperature-controlled deliveries of fresh food. “We will be looking to spend on M&As (in that area),” he disclosed.
PostNL last month expanded its grocery delivery service by starting to deliver shopping, meal boxes and other special products in cool boxes seven days a week across the Netherlands. Consumers can use a PostNL app to select their preferred delivery time slot.
Berendsen also expects a move towards same-day deliveries. “We need to add network capabilities that allow us to expand same-day or even shorter time windows, so we would need investments in this area,” he said.
He added: “Same-day is growing massively. Today it comes with a surcharge to have it, but I don’t know whether it might be free in a few years’ time.”
The Dutch postal operator is also seeing faster than expected growth in cross-border deliveries, with a large increase in shipments from Asia. For example, AliExpress volumes to the Netherlands have grown by a third, he said.
Asked by conference moderator Peter Somers about bpost’s failed bid for PostNL last autumn, Berendsen emphasised that the Dutch company had rejected the offer for various reasons. “On 5-6 criteria, we felt there was not enough viability to see it through,” he said.
