DHL Supply Chain

DHL Supply Chain

Company type	Division
Industry	Logistics
Headquarters	Bonn, Germany
Key people	John Gilbert, CEO
Revenue	€ 14,28 billion (2013)
Owner	Deutsche Post DHL
Number of employees	130,000
Website	www.dhl.com

DHL Supply Chain is a division of Deutsche Post DHL. The Supply Chain division comprises two business units – Supply Chain and Williams Lea. In the Supply Chain business, DHL provides contract logistics solutions along the entire supply chain for customers from a wide variety of sectors. Williams Lea is a global provider of business process outsourcing and a specialist in corporate information solutions, the management of companies’ information and communication processes. In Canadian and USA markets DHL Supply Chain operated under the name Exel until January 2016. DHL Supply Chain has around 130,000 employees and is headquartered in Bonn, Germany.

The Group provides its customers with both standardized products as well as solutions ranging from dialogue marketing to industrial supply chains. Deutsche Post DHL has about 470,000 employees in more than 220 countries and territories.

History

• 1969 – DHL founded by Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom and Robert Lynn in San Francisco.
• 1971 – DHL expands its Express network rapidly and becomes a trusted partner of many companies. Expansion into the Far East and Pacific Rim.
• 1972 – Services introduced in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.
• 1974 – The first UK office is opened in London. Globally, DHL now has 3,052 customers and 314 staff.
• 1976–1978 – Expansion in three major regions as DHL launches in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.
• 1977 – The first German DHL office is opened in Frankfurt.
• 1979 – DHL extends its services to delivering packages. Only document services had been available until now.
• 1983 – DHL is the first air express forwarder to serve Eastern European countries. An international distribution center (hub) is opened in Cincinnati, USA.
• 1985 – A state-of-the-art hub is opened in Brussels. More than 165,000 shipments are handled each night.
• 1986 – DHL enters into a joint venture with the People's Republic of China and becomes the first express company active in China.
• 1990 – DHL enters into strategic alliances with Lufthansa, Japan Airlines and Nissho Iwai.
• 1991 – DHL becomes the first international express company to restart service to Kuwait after the Gulf War.
• 1993 – DHL invests 60 million dollars in a new hub facility in Bahrain.
• 1998 – Deutsche Post becomes a shareholder in DHL.
• 2002 – Deutsche Post World Net becomes the major shareholder in DHL from 1 January. A 100 percent shareholding is completed by the end of the year.
• 2003 – Deutsche Post, DHL and Postbank make up the Group's current brand architecture. DHL now serves as the exclusive brand for all express and logistics activities. DHL changes its corporate colors from red and white to yellow and red. In April, the worldwide visual transformation of all vehicles, packing materials and buildings begins.
• 2004/2005 – Directly after the tsunami in South Asia, DHL, with over 40 offices throughout the disaster region, responds immediately to requests from government and aid organizations. The Group helps with free charter flights carrying relief supplies, land transport as well as monetary donations. DHL employees from around the world launch donation campaigns. DHL Disaster Response Teams (DRT) are established, supporting the UN and the international community's disaster response efforts in the aftermath of major sudden-onset natural disasters.
• 2005 – Deutsche Post World Net acquires Exel, a British logistics corporation, in December for 5.5 billion euros.
• 2007 – The DHL Innovation Center opens near Bonn. As a research and development center, its mission is to develop new, highly innovative and marketable products from the logistics trends of the future. Projects are realized via innovation partnerships within the business world and research partnerships.
• 2008 – DHL opens its new state-of-the-art European air hub at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany. The hub, one of Europe's largest construction sites, expands DHL's international network, providing greater connectivity to global growth markets and enabling DHL to improve its overall customer service.
• 2009 – The Group presents its Strategy 2015 and is renamed as Deutsche Post DHL.

Headquarters

Post Tower in Bonn, Germany

DHL Supply Chain is incorporated in Bonn, Germany as a part of Deutsche Post DHL global headquarters. The main building is Post Tower. Located in the former government quarter and built using large quantities of glass, it is impressive because of its modern architecture. The tower is 162 meters (531.5 feet) high, 82 meters (269 feet) long and 41 meters (134.5 feet) wide.

Mergers and acquisitions

The acquisition of the Swiss logistics provider Danzas and the largest American service provider in the field of international airfreight, Air Express International (AEI), by Deutsche Post, happened in 1999. Founded in 1815, the prestigious Danzas group was regarded as one of the world’s leading logistics companies. With approximately 29,000 employees at the time of acquisition, Danzas had a strong logistics network on all continents.

The acquisition of AEI was similar. AEI had a network of branches in 135 countries. In addition to integrated logistics and multi-modal transport, it was offering warehousing, distribution, customs processing and IT-based logistics services. AEI was integrated into the Intercontinental division of Danzas. As a full-service provider, the merged companies provided Deutsche Post with a dense transport network as well as an impressive portfolio of value-added services.

The partnership with DHL International, which began with the acquisition of a minority interest in 1998, was expanded and intensified in 2000. Negotiations were then concluded, allowing Deutsche Post to establish a majority interest from 1 January 2002. In July 2002, Deutsche Post acquired a 25-percent share in DHL from Lufthansa Cargo and increased its majority stake to 75 percent.

At the time, DHL Worldwide Express had more than 71,000 employees worldwide. A pioneer in global express shipping, DHL's international network linked over 220 countries and territories. DHL became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Group in December 2002 after Deutsche Post AG acquired the remaining shares from two investment funds and Japan Airlines.

In December 2005, Deutsche Post acquired the British logistics company Exel for 5.5 billion euros. At that time, approximately 111,000 employees worked for Exel in 135 countries.

Exel specialized in providing transport and logistics solutions for key customers. The company concluded the first half of 2005 with a 55 percent leap in profits to 172 million pounds (251 million euros).

In 2006 Deutsche Post took a majority stake in Williams Lea, a business process outsourcing (BPO) provider specializing in document management and mail services. The latest acquisition happened in July 2011, when DHL acquired Tag Group, an international provider of marketing execution and production services.

Regions and sectors

DHL Supply Chain is organized into five regions: North America, South America, APAC (Asia Pacific), MLEMEA (Mainland Europe, Middle East, and Africa), and UK&I (United Kingdom and Ireland). The Exel brand was retained for North America (USA and Canada), with the headquarters for the region in Westerville, Ohio. In 2016, the Exel brand transitioned DHL Supply Chain for the North America region. DHL Supply Chain provides solutions in six focus sectors: AEMCE (Automotive, Engineering, and Manufacturing and Chemical and Energy), Consumer, Retail, Technology, Service Logistics, Life Sciences and Healthcare. In 2011, DHL Supply Chain aligned their global management structure to enable the development and implementation of sector-specific supply chain solutions at a cross-regional level. In addition, each sector head is supported by a team of specialists who handles the customer projects and ensures the implementation of global sector solutions on a regional level.

Consumer and retail

Consumer and Retail are two of DHL Supply Chain’s largest sectors. Both of these offer major growth potential for the division, since DHL manages the supply chains all the way from the source of supply to the end customer. Services in these sectors range from international inbound logistics and warehouse and transport services, to packaging and other value-added services.

Technology

In the Technology sector, DHL Supply Chain’s portfolio of offerings ranges from inbound-to-manufacturing services and warehouse and transport services to integrated packaging, returns management and technical services. This is one of the sectors in which customers are increasingly requesting integrated solutions, which are being developed across all DHL divisions.

Life sciences & healthcare

DHL Supply Chain is also increasingly providing integrated solutions in the Life Sciences & Healthcare industry, where supply chains and logistics processes are still evolving in many parts of the world. In 2011, DHL Supply Chain acquired Eurodifarm, a specialist in the controlled-temperature distribution of pharmaceutical and diagnostic products. The purchase was made to strengthen DHL Supply Chain’s market leadership in Italy in this sector.

In England, DHL Supply Chain operates NHS Supply Chain for the National Health Service.

Automotive

The Automotive industry is one of DHL Supply Chain’s global sectors. The company has a strong presence in emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil. In this sector, DHL offers inbound-to-manufacturing, aftermarket logistics and lead logistics provider solutions.

Energy

The fast-growing Energy sector is another market in which the DHL divisions provide integrated logistics solutions for both the build and run phases of major projects. With DHL Supply Chain’s Maintenance, Repair & Operation services, they offer streamlined supply chain solutions.

Williams Lea

Williams Lea specializes in outsourced corporate communication and information management, ranging from office document and marketing solutions to customer correspondence management. They offer these solutions to customers in the financial, retail, consumer goods, pharmaceutical, publishing, public as well as legal sectors.

In July 2011, DHL acquired Tag Group, an international provider of marketing execution and production services. The acquisition expands DHL’s marketing solutions business.

Solutions and products

In the Supply Chain business, DHL Supply Chain provides customers in many industry sectors with logistics services along the entire supply chain – from planning, sourcing, production, storage and delivery to returns logistics and value-added services – in order to ensure logistics flow.

DHL Supply Chain offers warehousing, distribution, managed transport and value-added services as well as business process outsourcing, supply chain management and consulting solutions. DHL Supply Chain’s goal is to ensure that their customers’ products and information reach their markets quickly and efficiently, thus securing them competitive advantages.

Some of the key DHL Supply Chain products include: Lead Logistics Provider, Packaging Services, Integrated Logistics Procurement, Technical Services, Service Parts Logistics, e-Fulfillment, Airline Business Solutions.

The main services provided by Williams Lea include marketing solutions, office document solutions and customer correspondence management.

Market position

DHL Supply Chain is the global market leader in contract logistics with a market share of 8.3% (2010). In this highly fragmented market, the top ten players account for only about 23% of the overall market, the size of which is estimated to be €147 billion. DHL Supply Chain is the regional market leader in the regions of North America, Europe and Asia Pacific and also has a very strong position in rapidly growing markets such as Brazil, India, China and Mexico.

Financial results

DHL Supply Chain, as the contract logistics business of Deutsche Post DHL, generated profitable growth in year 2011. Revenues and earnings were well above the previous year's level. The division reported a revenue increase of 1.2 percent to EUR 13.2 billion (2010: EUR 13.1 billion). As a result of portfolio adjustments made during 2011 – such as the divestment of a subsidiary in the United States that was not part of the division's core business – this result only partially reflects the division's operating performance. Adjusted for these consolidation and exchange-rate effects, SUPPLY CHAIN's revenues rose by nearly 6 percent, or more than EUR 700 million, in 2011.

This increase was fueled in particular by strong growth in the Asia-Pacific region as well as in the Life Sciences & Healthcare and Automotive sectors. Additional contracts worth EUR 1.3 billion were concluded in 2011, an increase of around EUR 200 million versus the previous year. Combined with additional operating improvements and strict cost management, increased business activity drove up the division's earnings in 2011. At EUR 362 million, the operating earnings were 56.7 percent above the previous year's level of EUR 231 million.

Corporate responsibility

Corporate responsibility is an integral part of Deutsche Post DHL’s Strategy 2015. “Living responsibility” is the motto for the Group’s corporate responsibility initiatives. With different programs, Deutsche Post DHL focuses on protecting the environment (GoGreen), helping to manage disasters (GoHelp) and promoting education (GoTeach). They are also supporting the voluntary work of their employees. In 2011, for the first time, the Group called on their workforce around the world to take part in Global Volunteer Day. More than 50,000 staff members in over 160 countries volunteered their time to help children, young people and senior citizens. Deutsche Post DHL’s Living Responsibility Fund is used to financially support the local community projects for which their employees volunteer.