TNT has acquired Speedage Express (India); Korea boosts Singapore’s biomedical sector; TNT Freight Management has been awarded a global contract by Electrolux; and TNT Fashion Group's new warehouse in Lutterworth (UK) is up and running.
TNT has acquired ARC India Ltd, which operates under the trade name Speedage Express Cargo Services. The acquisition is in line with TNT’s strategic objective to become the leading provider of express deliveries in the emerging markets in Asia, specifically India.
The combination of Speedage’s strong domestic road network with TNT’s international and domestic networks will form the first integrated and the strongest network available in India, presenting a powerful platform for further expansion in the fast growing Indian express market.
The combined revenues of around €100 million puts TNT in the No. 3 position in India’s domestic road express market, and the company aims to be the market leader in India by 2010.
Founded in 1995 and with an annual profitable turnover of €17 million in FY 2005 -06, Speedage has 514 depots, 26 transit hubs, 730 vehicles, 1,195 employees and approximately 1,300 sub-contracted staff.
Korea’s booming biomedical sector has made it the one of the largest exporters of clinical trial samples to Singapore. According to TNT, clinical trial shipments from Korea to Singapore have experienced a doubled since the clinical trial market opened in Korea.
Lim Bee Koong, director of Clinical Life Sciences for TNT Asia, said that the value of the bio and pharmaceutical markets in Korea, which exceeded S$5 billion in 2004, are expected to continue an average growth of up to 16% until 2015.
The Korean government recently announced its determination to make Korea’s biopharmaceutical industry one of the Top 7 in the world by 2016. Since 2004, the government has invested in this sector by setting up regional clinical trial centres, and aims to establish a total of fifteen by 2010.
TNT has six dedicated regional Life Sciences Centres of Excellence established in Singapore, Geneva, Edinburgh, the US, Sydney and Johannesburg. It also has distribution centres in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and fourteen other cities in Asia to handle the delivery of all medical-related samples to other parts of the region.
TNT Freight Management has secured a large-scale global contract with Electrolux Global Logistics, covering all Electrolux’s airfreight from Asia to Europe, within Asia and from Europe to the rest of the world.
To date, TNT’s co-operation with Electrolux was limited to airfreight and some seafreight between Sweden and a number of countries. Now TNT will handle all airfreight from Asia, Australia and Japan to Europe, and all airfreight from Europe to the rest of the world. TNT will also be responsible for all Electrolux’s airfreight within Asia and within Australia, except for shipments from Asia to Australia.
Ten months of the fire that destroyed a TNT Fashion Group warehouse in Magna Park, Lutterworth (UK), the company’s newly built £48 million facility is up and running, along with a 270,000 sq.ft extension. The distribution centre – for clothes chain Primark – will be fully operational by October.
The rebuild and extension coincide with the renewal of the Primark contract, which extends the current deal for a further seven years.
Within 48 hours of the fire in November last year, operations had been restored in alternative premises, complete with the computerised warehouse management system
