Sunday, December 21, 2008

DHL moving up value chain

DHL, a market leader in express delivery and logistics services, is offering more economical options for its customers in the current challenging market conditions.

DHL Express (Malaysia and Brunei) country manager Sam Leong said customers would expect a leading transport and logistics company such as DHL to deliver a lot more value, especially in terms of optimising their supply chain and helping them to save costs.

“DHL Express is making a fundamental change in how we operate to improve efficiency and our market competitiveness to meet our customer needs,” Leong told StarBiz.

“Our customers are more focused than ever on reducing costs of operations and DHL Express is committed to provide the logistics solutions that can help them achieve a leaner and meaner supply chain.”

Leong said that “with the right solutions, we can help our customers reduce their inventory and raw material stock levels and help free up their cashflow.”

“We can do this by enabling them to adopt a more nimble and just-in-time supply chain to minimise the risk of inventory holdings in an environment of demand uncertainty,” he added.

DHL Express has introduced a new product called DHL Economy Select, which is designed for the time-critical but less urgent shipments.

“Our aim is to provide a more economical option to our customers and a more flexible alternative for their supply chain.

“We also have a Road Express option under the new product that helps our customers move their goods between Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand via road,” he said.

Leong said it was important that DHL stayed even closer to its customers under the current downbeat market conditins so that it could respond to their changing needs.

On its small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) market, DHL said its recent initiatives would definitely help enhance its competitiveness in the Malaysian market.

The company recently launched the DHL SME Logistics Solutions and the jointly developed POSPRIORITY Express with PosLaju this year.

DHL SME Logistics Solutions help SMEs explore new markets, expand in growing markets and establish a global presence.

POSPRIORITY Express is aimed at customers from the retail sector as well as SMEs.

“DHL will remain committed to being the trade facilitator to the SME market in Malaysia, and the collaboration with Pos Malaysia will help extend our reach to the SME community and provide them with greater value, convenience and better service.

“Our SME Logistics Solutions programme, roadshows, and through the showcasing of SME success stories have enabled us to connect very closely with our SME customers and in further understanding their needs,” he said.

Going forward, Leong said next year would be very challenging given the slowdown in global markets.

“However, Malaysian businesses and exporters could also at the same time explore to further penetrate the growing regions such as Asia and Middle East markets, and DHL with our extensive presence and market leading capabilities in Intra-Asia Pacific is well placed to help them,” he said.

DHL Central Asia Hub (CAH), located at the Hong Kong International Airport is already operational, helping serve as a gateway for faster and more reliable service into the North Asia markets of China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, all of which are key markets for Malaysian importers and exporters.

With a total investment of US$210mil, the facility is the first large-scale automated express hub in the Asia-Pacific.

Source: Star Online

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