Spain’s post office company is to enter the Portuguese market with a 24-hour parcel delivery service.
Correos, a courier company 100% owned by the Spanish state, announced on Tuesday that it will start to expand internationally and also aims to enter the market for financial services.
This expansion is to kick-off in Portugal and puts the company head to head with CTT and other smaller competitors already working in Portugal.
"We aim to become the most efficient 24-hour delivery network in the Iberian Peninsula," said Correos President, Juan Manuel Serrano. At a press briefing in Madrid.
Unlike CTT, Correos remains a state-owned company and is not yet operating in the financial sector, something that the Spanish company wants to change, pointing to the offer of financial services in its 2,400 points of sale as one of the ways to improve its business.
Correos estimates that it closed the 2018 financial year with losses of €150 million, projecting a €7.4 million loss for this year.
CTT already has delivers parcels for Amazon across Spain through subsidiary, Tourline Express, but not in the home market of Portugal, “which will happen one day,” according to the President of the CTT, last year.
Amazon orders are delivered in Portugal by the Spanish delivery company, Seur.
Comments
We never know who will be delivering what, when, and most importantly, IF.
Dozens of small companies, each spread too thin to succeed. The result is appalling service, missing shipments, and loss.
These services are all based on a US model, which relies on large volume combined with efficient routing using GPS.
But GPS doesn't work easily in Portugal, as there is no database of addresses.
Volume remains small, as there is little e-commerce here.
Regulators need to step up and get to work, just pull the licenses of firms who insist on accepting items for delivery when they are unable to perform the work.
If this big Spanish company actually delivers the parcels as they're paid to do, that wouldn't be a bad thing.
If they want to start yet another underfunded skeleton startup, I hope they get blocked.
If it DOES go ahead, hopefully Royal Mail will get wind of it and dump GLS like a hot potato.