Shipping giants PostNL and DHL have both been buoyed in the first half of 2019 by growing ecommerce revenue.
PostNL said in its results that 51% of its revenue in the first half of the year related to ecommerce, totalling €695.15 million out of its total €1.37 billion in revenue. Volumes in its parcel division grew 13% in the second quarter compared to 2018.
The company said it would look to improve operational efficiency and expand its services, as well as saying it would open three new sorting centres this year.
PostNL made €52 million in pre-tax profit for the first half of the year.
The company first saw ecommerce reach half of its revenues in its Q1 results earlier this year. The company said at the time it would add more digitised services such as automated yield management.
Meanwhile DHL made €30.83 billion in revenue for the first half of the year, up 3.6% from 2018.
The company’s ecommerce solutions division was responsible for €1.88 billion, or around 6.1% of the total. DHL spent €47 million in capex on the division during the second quarter of 2019.
It recently announced an agreement which will see Austrian Post subsidiary In Time delivering parcels sent by DHL customers to Slovakia while DHL’s subsidiary PPL CZ will deliver the other company’s parcels to the Czech Republic.
