From where I sit, the answer
has to be ‘no’ – at least not yet.
Yes, the amalgamation of
these two giants will re-draw the landscape of the global logistics market - FedEx
and DHL will certainly be thinking hard about what happens next. All the other large players will be busily
contemplating what they need to do to stay competitive too.
In the meantime, the debate
about market consolidation rages on.
And while the leviathans of
the industry dominate, they don’t actually define the entire market. Between them, on the one hand, and the very
small, local owner-operators on the other, there are acres of space.
This is space that remains highly
fragmented; it’s populated by a mix of different operators of different sizes each
with different capabilities. Some
operators have sectoral or regional specialisations, while others adopt a more
generalist or completely ad-hoc approach. This is very much where the same day slice of the market is in the UK.
Arguably, this is also the
space where the really interesting changes are likely to occur. They’re happening already and, in my view,
they will continue apace.
In the last year alone,
CitySprint has made five acquisitions – two of which were quite
substantial. It’s a strategy that
enables us to build scale, extend our geographic reach and continually enhance the
service we offer to our customers.
This type of activity will
set the industry up for growth and expansion in the future. The same day market will increasingly be
about a few recognised brands with clearly differentiated offers – in our case
that means excellent service, flexibility and innovation.
Then it will be about filling
that vacuum of opportunity. We can do
this because we can be dynamic.
For the large,
headline-grabbing operators this may be less easy to achieve but that won’t
stop the steady march forward of greater consolidation at the top end of the
market.
