Cargus accelerates its business and reports double-digit revenue growth in H1 2023

Cargus, one of the biggest players in the Romanian courier industry, has gone through a major transformation in the last year and a half: team consolidation, strong improvements in operational excellence, and developing technological solutions that offer a unique experience to its customers.

In the first half of 2023, Cargus recorded a growth north of 10% in revenues, compared to 2022, and a similar pace is expected for the whole year. The company plans to invest around 33 million lei for this year alone, with a focus on logistics, technological solutions for businesses, and international expansion.

“2023 has all the features to be a good year for Cargus and to set our growth for the next years: an enriched team, an outstanding operational performance, future product launches that will become benchmarks for our customers’ experience, and a growing business outside local borders. Just to name a few. In numbers, we started the year with positive premises, we more than doubled our growth, compared to where we ended last year, and estimate a further increase due to the consistent investments and the hard work of an agile team,” says Yannick Mooijman, CEO Cargus.

Cargus continued its expansion towards European e-Commerce markets and the development of the cross-border segment. The company accelerated its business in Poland: has put in place the operational infrastructure, consolidated the team and added important customers to its portfolio.

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Cargus: outstanding operational performance

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In June, Vinted, Europe’s largest marketplace platform in the field of second-hand fashion, partnered with Cargus, thus, joining other large companies, such as Bonprix or LPP.

Next steps consist in developing the business in Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Germany, focusing on creating infrastructure and developing logistics partnerships. Next year, the company expects to double its volumes the cross-border segment.

Growth on all business segments

The e-Commerce segment represents an important part of Cargus’ portfolio. The company will continue to capture the domestic e-Commerce growth and expects a 7 – 10% increase of the local market overall by the end of the year.

Another Cargus segment that exceeded expectations is the micro and small businesses one – it more than doubled the volumes, compared to H1 2022, and is expected to continue to grow in a fast pace.

Analysing the industry profile, FMCG, IT&C, Beauty, Pharma and Books where the industries with the largest volumes delivered in January – June, FMCG being the industry with the most significant growth.

Logistical excellence

In the first half of the year, Cargus enhanced its operational performance. Currently, 98% of parcels are delivered as promised to customers with the help of approximately 2,200 couriers that cover 12,500 unique location per month and through the 3,000 Cargus SHIP & GO locations. This is why, an important part of Cargus’ investment budget is directed towards the operational area – implementing logistic and operational solutions that increase the efficiency of the processing centres and offer customers a unique delivery experience.

The operational network consists of 5 national sorting centres, with a sorting capacity of 46,000 parcels per hour, 2 gateway centres with a strategic role for the cross-border deliveries and 36 warehouses across the country. In total, Cargus’ operational assets cover an area of over 220,000 sqm. Cargus plans to open a new warehouse in Sibiu in the near future.

In the same time, the company will soon launch two technological platforms with direct and real benefits for customers. The first is an omnichannel platform that perfects the communication stream with businesses and consumers, creating a seamless experience. The second is a dedicated platform that offers online shops a complete operational ecosystem – one tool for orders and stock management, which enables full integration with over 30 external marketplaces and reduces time, effort and needed resources.

The Cargus SHIP & GO out of home network was and continues to be one of Cargus’sinvestment directions. In less than a year the company reached 3,000 locations, in large, medium and small Romanian cities, and built an entire ecosystem of services and payment options around it. The volumes dedicated to the out of home network increased with 300% in less than a year.