By establishing a global organisation under uniform management, DHL Express has realigned its strategy. The main purpose is to improve profitability and generate further organic growth. Our goal is to be the preferred provider in the international express business across all products and regions, and we are defining our range of products and services as well as our infrastructure with this aim in mind.

Creating a competitive international network

The core element of our strategy is the international air traffic network. Competitive pricing and a first-rate service on all the major international trade routes is the target. We employ specialist teams to ensure delivery of the best possible performance, profitability and growth on 74 important global trade lanes we have defined.

Exploiting strong position in domestic markets

We intend to systematically reinforce our leading position in numerous domestic markets. More than 80% of all shipments remain in the country of the sender. We intend to step up the consolidation of domestic and foreign shipments and thus leverage further cost advantages. By way of domestic business, we are also winning international orders from our customers.

Strengthening regional infrastructure

In order to participate in the growth of the express markets, we are creating the necessary ground infrastructure in the different regions. The new European hub at Leipzig/Halle airport represents a major step in this direction. It was integrated into our network in the autumn and will become fully operational in spring 2008. We are also expanding our central Asian hub in Hong Kong and planning a new one in Shanghai.

Making services readily accessible

At the same time, we are developing systems and products for our customers that make it even easier for them to use DHL for their shipping needs – for example, by building electronic interfaces to our customers and integrating these in our workflows, as well as using new technologies to facilitate customers’ access to our services.