TNT India plans major network expansions

TNT India Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned Indian subsidiary of the Dutch firm TNT N.V., a global logistics and express company, is expanding its express delivery network in India, in line with its global strategy of focussing on building quality network in emerging markets.

The company’s expansion plans follow the integration of TNT Speedage, its Indian road express division into TNT’s global information technology system, called Global Link.

According to Abhik Mitra, managing director, TNT India Pvt Ltd, “We will be pumping in additional investment in India over the next couple of years to carry out expansion of network in all tier-2 and tier-3 cities and towns in India. We have consumed most of the Euro 100 million investment announced for India two years ago and are in need of fresh funds to complete the expansion of our network.”

TNT India is in the process of buying 400,000 sq ft area in addition to its existing 200,000 sq ft area in five major cities like Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur and Kolkata in the next three years to expand its hub and spoke distribution network. The company is looking at acquiring land in all these cities.

In India, TNT follows three lines of distribution model — road express network, domestic air express and international express network.

“We have set up hubs in these cities and will be expanding them further so that each hub will further connect with 20-30 depots (spokes) around them. We are looking to set up warehouses in major cities to cater to the requirements of our customers,” he said.

Mitra said the major growth drivers for the company’s business in India are telecom, retail, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, automobile and auto components and high-technology sectors, and to cater to their demands TNT is putting in place large warehousing complexes in key cities.

The company today claims to have a marketshare of 18 per cent in international express cargo market, 16-17 per cent share in road express business and about 5 per cent in domestic air express business.

TNT, which acquired Speedage Express Cargo Services in September 2006, one of the Indian road express companies, has successfully completed the integration of 168 Speedage locations on Global Link, the software adopted by TNT internationally to track its consignments online and rebranded Speedage services as TNT. It has invested Euro 4 million in hardware and IT network to achieve a complete Internet and computer sharing process, Mitra said.

In India, TNT’s IT Data Centre is located at ITPL, Bangalore. TNT’s full-fledged global IT hub is in Atherstone, UK.