According to Mark Thom- son, Managing Director from Royal Mail Group on August 15, 2012 at the press conference held in Beijing, GLS as Royal Mail’s European parcel service supplier, will cooperate with the Chinese express firm ZJS Express to provide China-toEurope express services — “European business parcel”.
Mark introduced the “European business parcel” service that provides a one-stop end-to-end electronic tracking system from parcel collecting to delivery, making parcel express services more value-for-money for less time-sensitive items with delivery typically between 3 and 5 working days from China to Europe. Comparably, the main suppliers in the current Chinese overseas express market generally offer 2-3 days in delivery at a high expense. Combination of GLS’s expertise and logistics technologies with ZJS Express’s extensive coverage network and market operating experience in China, makes the European business parcel service jointly launched by GLS and ZJS Express more competitive in price and service quality. Moreover, the integration of IT system between GLS and ZJS Express could enable users to fully track parcels.
“In recent years, China has developed rapidly in economic scale. Last year, China’s exports to Europe accounted for 17.3% in the total European imports volume, which made China as the biggest importer with Europe. Furthermore, over the past 5 years Europe’s imports from China has risen by nearly 50% and Europe has become China’s biggest trade partner with sharp rise in the number of China-to-Europe parcels. This makes me believe that it is of great significance for Royal Mail to start business partnership with China,”Mark told the reporter when talking about the reasons for this time’s successful collaboration.
On the other hand, Chen Xianbao, President of ZJS Express, partnership with GLS was optimistic that the cooperation will enable ZJS Express to expand its services to many European countries and regions.
Cai Jin, Vice Chairman of China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, commented that it is the first step for Chinese express enterprises to go global.
According to Chen, ZJS Express has considered nudging into the international market for years by the win-win overseas strategy to partner with the top three foreign enterprises. However, the cost to cooperate with the four express giants is very high, while mediumand small-sized agents lack satisfactory integrity and quality. Chen hopes to seek a new profit source for ZJS Express. Royal Mail and ZJS Express merely cooperate this time in terms of product and services, while the capital perspective has not been involved yet. But cooperation may be further expanded both in width and depth in future.
“Via such partnership, the above-mentioned China-to-Europe parcel business offers an economical service at a price 10%-20% lower than that of the big four expresses yet with about 2 days more in delivery. ZJS Express’s trial on such an overseas model is a feasible gateway for the domestic service firms. Once the model with Royal Mail succeeds, ZJS Express will duplicate this model in the North America and Asia Pacific markets by teaming with the local top 3-4 companies,” Chen told the reporter.
In order to ensure the smooth operation of the business cooperation, Royal Mail and ZJS Express have especially set up a Corporate Express Business Consulting Co., Ltd.(Beijing) to provide supporting services. About the specific operating model, Zhen Zhi, General Manager of Corporate Express Business Consulting Co., Ltd. introduced that ZJS Express served as a service front end for GLS in China, where the former’s order center or call center receives and processes orders from customers. Then the domestic parcels bounding to Europe will arrive at London and Frankfurt by air via three domestic ports—Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. After being forwarded from London and Frankfurt to Europe, the parcels will go to GLS for delivery.
It is reported that the China-to-Europe business parcel service plan jointly launched by Royal Mail and ZJS Express will be initiated in North China in late August and then in East China and South China in the two months afterwards. In October, the European business parcel service will be expanded across China.
However, the cooperation between ZJS Express and Royal Mail this time only involves express services from China to Europe instead of express services from Europe to China. “Many of our significant international clients in Europe need express services from Europe to China. By our practice, the first step is to deliver parcels from China to Europe and the next step will probably be parcel delivery from Europe to China,” said Mark.