With parcel delivery and postal service seeing a global pickup, Business RT spoke with Deutsche Post DHL CEO, Frank Appel about business growth in Russia and the future of postal services.
“We see at the moment, very healthy growth. Growth above GDP growth. Business is growing faster that GDP, at least twice, and we see at the moment, double digit growth in our business this year, in Russia. We are very strong in Asia, we are very strong in Eastern Europe, we are very strong in Latin America and Africa. Wherever, you know, the growth is, and you have tremendous growth. You know in Germany we are happy with 3% growth, you have much more growth. So we are there already in these markets. We benefit at the moment and will massively benefit in the future, from potential growth in these regions.”
RT: Do you think that postal service remains a strong business?
FA:“We think there is a future for the classical mail business. It is declining in volume, but its an important infrastructure for the German country, and therefore I have no doubt that we will be successful. But what we are doing there is adding new services. In two ways. One is in the parcel business. Die to the mail order boom we have in the western world, which is starting now taking place in Russia, where people are ordering from distance, the goods, because they can’t get access to that, and that’s an interesting development possibility here in Russia. And the second is that we transfer the quality of our product in the real world, which is a confidential secured letter, into the internet world. You know, at the moment you can’t communicate confidentially with a party, because, you know, in the whole internet world, everybody can catch your email and read it, and we will provide a service that nobody can catch the email, and its just a provider, a sender, and a recipient, can read the email. The whole way – its encrypted."
RT: How do you see the post operating in twenty – fifty years?
FA: “Definitely the post will be different, but the fundamental will still remain. Our product – the letter – has survived five hundred years. I have no doubt it will survive at least the next hundred years, or maybe two hundred years, because there will always be a need for paper communication, even in the future. You know, I can’t imagine any situation that everything will be virtual. You know there will be still paper around the world to a sizeable scale, so there will be still the old classical part of physical mail delivery. But it will be added by a lot more volume and parcels, and I can’t imagine that goods can be beamed – like in the Spaceship Enterprise. You know, that will not happen at least in our lifetime where people are able to send goods through the internet, so there will be a huge increase in volumes in that dimension.”