Integrators – this is how the companies providing express carriage and deliveries prefer to be referred to, TNT Bulgaria’s general manager Ivan Vassilev told Moving Forward.
In his view, the international integrators in Bulgaria offer far more complicated and multifunctional services than the usual delivery of letters and parcels.
A distinction should be made here, however, between international integrators and the two dozen or more Bulgarian delivery companies that operate on the local market. The latter should still be considered important, since most Bulgarians rely on them if deciding to avoid using the state-owned Bulgarian Posts.
So, the integrator/courier service market in Bulgaria, according to hard-to-find but still considered official figures, registered a growth of about 22 per cent in 2005. Despite this growth, however, the annual domestic consumption of the service is smaller compared to turnovers that sector firms register in Europe and the US.
The global giants DHL, TNT, UPS and FedEx are present on the Bulgarian market. Leading local courier companies include also Speedy, Interlogistica, Tip-Top Courier, City Express and logistic centre Econt.
Bulgaria’s integrator/courier market is segmented on the basis of price and quality. The global integrators offer a wide range of services and destinations at higher prices. They, as well as the local courier majors, focus mainly on servicing businesses.
DHL, TNT, UPS and FedEx share the international integrator services market in Bulgaria, as well as abroad.
Both international and Bulgarian operators agree, however, that the integrator/courier services market is mushrooming in this country. They compete in offering speedy and secure deliveries, convenient transportation and easy access to services on holidays and outside regular working hours. Businesses and students are the key clients of door-to-door express deliveries, with the top destinations being the US and Germany.
Speaking of the four world-leader integrators, they have been present on the local market for most of the 16 years of transition Bulgaria has seen, some of them for the entire period.
In Time, the local representative of UPS (United Parcel Service) has been operating on the Bulgarian market since 1990 and covers the whole country.
According to In Time, the top three destinations with which it works in Bulgaria are Germany, the UK and the US.
TNT Bulgaria was founded in December 1995. It is a subsidiary of TNT Express, a leading business-to-business express carrier, which is one of the three main subsidiaries of the 1998-formed TNT Post Group (TPG).
Ivan Vassilev, general manager of TNT Bulgaria, says the most important competitive advantage that the company has are the people working at TNT. TNT has yet another advantage: it offers round-the-clock services seven days a week.
The company offers three types of services – Global Express, Economy Express and Domestic Express. Economy Express is an economic service, unique on the Bulgarian market, that uses road transport with defined transit times and the possibility to monitor the status of the delivery online.
DHL has been present on the international market since 1981 and DHL Bulgaria was set up in 1991. In 2003, Deutsche Post World Net bought DHL, Kanzas and EuroExpress, all the companies are now working under the DHL brand due to its popularity.
DHL Bulgaria claims to hold a 50-per cent share of the market of international deliveries in this country.
FedEx (Federal Express) says it is the only company to offer guaranteed deliveries to the US and Canada from Bulgaria within 24 hours.
Since it set foot in Bulgaria in 1999, FedEx has found out that the most popular destinations are the western European countries, with a focus on Germany, Italy and France, as well as the US.
