Keysfin: The Postal And Courier Services Market, The Winner During The Pandemic, Record Level In 2021

The turnover of the Romanian postal and courier services market rose by 19% compared to 2019 and exceeded the 2011 level by 136%, reaching 6.4 billion lei in 2020, according to the latest KeysFin analysis.  

“We estimate the continuation of the growth trend that started in 2010 and the turnover of companies that provide postal and courier services to exceed the 7.3 billion lei threshold in 2021, based on the development of online demand and inflationary pressures,” said Diana Florescu, KeysFin economic analyst. 

The postal and courier services market is one of the few economic areas where the number of companies increased considerably during the pandemic, by almost 39% from 2019 and up about 242% from the 2011 level, reaching a record 3.4 thousand companies in 2020.  

ROMANIAN MAJORITY OWNERSHIP, IN 98.5% OF POSTAL AND COURIER COMPANIES 

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“Of the 2,514 local companies that recorded positive Shareholder equity in 2020, 2,476 (98.5%) had majority Romanian ownership (over 50% of the total). By the number of companies with foreign direct ownership, the investors from the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Cyprus were leaders (with 4 companies each). By the value of Shareholder equity, in 2020, investors from Romania controlled more than 71.5%, those from Luxembourg 15.5%, and those from the Netherlands 8.4%,” said Diana Florescu, KeysFin economic analyst. 

RECORD NET RESULT IN 2020 

If in 2019 the net result (net profit minus net loss) of the postal and courier service providers increased marginally compared to 2018, in 2020 the annual increase was one of the largest in the economy, of 124%. When compared to 2011, the net result went from a loss of 121 million lei to a profit of 525 million lei.  

POSTAL AND COURIER SERVICES, WINNERS DURING THE PANDEMIC 

POSTA ROMANA is still the main player in the postal and courier market in our country. The company, owned by the Romanian state through the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization – 93.6% and BY the Fondul Proprietatea – 6.4%, reported a turnover of almost 1.3 billion lei (20.2% of the total) in 2020. It should be noted that in 2019, the turnover of this institution was 1.28 billion lei, as such the company maintained the upward trend of the previous year. 

FAN COURIER EXPRESS SRL, the leader of the courier segment, continues to gain ground and gets closer to Posta Romana in 2020. The 100% Romanian private company reached a turnover of more than 1 billion lei for the first time ever, following a 28% advance from 2019, and thus reaching 16% of the overall market. 

According to data provided by FAN Courier to GPEC, the number of e-commerce deliveries increased on average by 12% in 2021 from 2020. In 2021, November was the month with the highest number of deliveries, almost 7.3 million, and February was the month with the lowest number of deliveries, with 4.8 million. On Black Friday (November 2021), the number of deliveries increased by 15% compared to Black Friday 2020, reaching about 4.7 million deliveries for this event alone. The top product categories that saw significant growth in 2021 include: Fashion, Food supplements and products from the Home & Deco range, while the IT&C vertical decreased in 2021 when compared to 2020, GPEC data shows. 

As in the previous year, CARGUS SRL (turnover of 494 million lei, 7.8% of the total)  maintains its third position in the leaderboard. 

The highest increase (nominal and percentage) in the top 10 was registered by DELIVERY SOLUTIONS SA (annual advance of 234.6 million lei, i.e. 142%) which entered the Top 5 companies, to the fourth place surpassing FEDEX EXPRESS ROMANIA TRANSPORTATION SRL (formerly known as TNT ROMANIA SRL).  

Together, the 10 largest companies generated 75% of overall turnover. 

BRINOGO, GLOVO AND FOODPANDA ANNUAL INCREASES OF 7, 5 AND 4-FOLD IN 2020 

The analysis does not take into account the performance of companies such as BRINGO MAGAZIN SRL (indirectly controlled by Carrefour Nederland BV) or GLOVOAPPRO SRL (owned by the Spanish Glovop23 SL), which declared as their main scope of activity NACE codes related to the IT&C sector. According to the latest data provided by the Ministry of  Finance, the two companies reported yearly increases of 3 figures of 595%, to 47.4 million lei (BRINGO) and 418% to  167.7 million lei (GLOVO) in 2020. 

At the end of 2021, the Competition Council authorized under certain conditions (not to impose exclusivity clauses in relation to partner restaurants and not to make the level of fees paid by partner restaurants – either current or future – contractually conditional) with the compliance with an exclusive clause, the transaction through which Glovoappro SRL will take over Foodpanda RO SRL company and indirectly the Pandamart business, operated by Delivery Hero Smart SRL.  

FOODPANDA RO SRL has as main scope of activity the 4619 NACE code: agents involved in the sale of a variety of goods, and as secondary areas IT&C, trade and administrative services and support activities, and the turnover reported for 2020 was 102 million lei.