Blue Dart profit up by 10.62%

Blue Dart Express Limited, South Asia's number one express air and integrated transportation, distribution and logistics Company, today announced its annual result for the year ended December 31, 2008 at its board meeting held in Mumbai.

The Company posted a Rs 77.35 crore profit after tax for the year ended December 31, 2008, up by 10.62% from the corresponding period of the previous year. Income from Operations for the quarter ended December 31, 2008 was Rs 227.34 crore lower by 2.34% as compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Speaking on the occasion Anil Khanna, Managing Director, Blue Dart Express Ltd said, “We are a customer-led company, and continue to be driven by their needs. The year 2008 marked the completion of Blue Dart’s 25 years of innovating and providing quality service to our customers. The softening trends that commenced in the first quarter of 2008 worsened towards the last quarter of the year with a global depressed economic and financial environment.  With the Company having essentially a ‘fixed cost’ based business model, the deceleration in volume growth is having an adverse impact on margins.”

“Going forward our focus would be to consolidate our leadership position in the air express products while strengthening our ground express product offering. In the coming year we would continue to set benchmarks and standards in the Indian express market and facilitate trade and commerce for a greater India.” added Anil Khanna.

Blue Dart handled 79.73 million shipments weighing 2,31,923 tonnes servicing to over 21,100 locations across India. To augment its robust infrastructure, Blue Dart inducted one more B-757 freighter to its fleet of 3 B737s & 3 B757s. Blue Dart is committed to 25 initiatives to be rolled out in the next one year’s time, focusing on customized requirements for specific verticals and to better its already best-in-class service quality, by pursuing programs like First Choice & Net Promoter Approach.

About Blue Dart:
Blue Dart, South Asia's premier number one express air and integrated transportation, distribution and Logistics Company, offers secure and reliable delivery of consignments to over 21,100 locations in India.

As part of the DHL Group (DHL Express, DHL Global Forwarding & DHL Exel Supply Chain), Blue Dart accesses the largest and most comprehensive express and logistics network worldwide, covering over 220 countries and offers an entire spectrum of distribution services including air express, freight forwarding supply chain solutions and customs clearance.

Blue Dart was selected a Business Superbrand for the fourth time consecutively from over 1,699 brands and received the Readers Digest's Most Trusted Brand Gold Award, three years in a row. It has been listed twice in the Dun & Bradstreet top 500 companies in India. Blue Dart has been awarded the NDTV Business Leadership Award 2008 and the Asia Brand Congress Brand Leadership Award 2008. It has also been listed as one of the Forbes 'Best under Billion' companies.

The Blue Dart team drives market leadership through its motivated people force, dedicated air capacity, cutting-edge technology, innovation, and value-added services to deliver unmatched standards of service quality to its customers. For further information, please visit our website at www.bluedart.com