SEEING no improvement in other markets aside from the semi-conductor and electronics industry, DHL Express Philippines is looking at tapping new markets for growth.
Country manager Lawrence Llamzon, in an interview, said DHL is looking at the mining, services, and agriculture sectors as well as the high-end export market.
I think DHL Express will grow much faster when we tap these new markets. There are a lot of potentials in the mining and services industries as very few service providers have tapped them, Llamzon said.
DHL expects to corner about 50% of the new markets when it starts servicing them toward the second quarter of the year.
We are very upbeat about these new prospects and we pegged our growth expectation for 2007 by 30%-40% higher than our 2006 target. However, the bulk of our growth will still come from the electronics industry where we expect to grow 10% higher than the market, Llamzon explained.
DHL Express Phils is on target to hit its 30% to 35% 2006 growth goal, thanks to the strong electronics industry and the retail market.
Such expected growth is 10% more than its projected growth for 2005 and despite the adverse effects of the imposition of the value-added tax and volatile fuel prices this year.
In 2005, DHL outgrew the market by more than 10% due to the strong performance of the country’s electronic sector, which compensated for the lower-than-expected performance from other sources such as financial servicing and shared services like call centers.
For 2007, DHL Express Phils will invest heavily in the development of its retail outlets, launching 11 servicepoints. It is also looking at establishing two more gateways, one in Luzon (Subic, Clark or Tarlac) and another in the South (Davao).
DHL sees fuel prices remaining a key issue in 2007, but does not see any major price swings.
It also expects the semi-conductor and electronics industry doubling its performance in 2006 and the express industry growing by 3% and 6% of the country’s gross domestic product.
