Deutsche Post buys Smartmail, QuikPak
By James Cooke -- Logistics Management, 6/1/2004
Deutsche Post WorldNet (DPWN), continuing its drive to acquire companies that offer value-added mailing services, has announced that it will buy two specialty mail companies in the United States.
Deutsche Post Global Mail USA, DPWN's U.S. subsidiary, plans to buy SmartMail Services and QuikPak Inc. SmartMail provides transportation and sorting services for flat mail, such as magazines and other periodicals. The company also intends to acquire QuikPak, which offers order-fulfillment services for catalogue retailers.
Deutsche Post Global Mail already owns Global Mail, which provides cross-border mail services. It also owns DHL@home, a business-to-consumer service for parcels and bound printed matter. DHL@home participates in the U.S. Postal Service's Workshare program, which allows parcel carriers to feed packages into mail sorting centers. The postal service then handles the residential delivery.
With the addition of SmartMail and QuikPak, Deutsche Post Global Mail will employ 1,850 people in the United States and will generate some $600 million in annual revenue. With locations in 15 states, it would be the largest private U.S. provider of mailing services.
Parcel industry consultant Satish Jindel, principal of Pittsburgh-based SJ Consulting Group, believes that Deutsche Post's purchase of SmartMail and QuikPak will give shippers more opportunities to buy bundled services from a single company. "Deutsche Post's acquisitions are part of the change taking place in the parcel mail industry," he says. "A lot of shippers are trying to use fewer and fewer companies. They can have their printed material handled by the same company that does their air freight and packages. They will get a more streamlined relationship."
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