DHL 2004 Annual Report Download - page 67

been strengthened by the recruitment of new staff and by improving its organization.
This is of particular benefit to the quality of our service. The Mail International Business
Division now has its own divisional board, whose members represent different regions
and specialist areas. The purpose of this is to allow us to tap further revenue and earnings
potential in deregulated segments of the market – above all in the USA and in selected
European countries.
The EXPRESS Corporate Division continues to be managed by two board depart-
ments. On January 1, 2005, John Mullen joined the Group’s Board of Management to
take responsibility for the Americas, Asia and Emerging Markets department; Dr. Peter
E. Kruse remains head of the department responsible for Europe. We continued to push
ahead with the integration of Deutsche Post Euro Express, DHL and Danzas in Germany
in preparation for 2005. As part of this, a legal merger of company units was carried out,
organizational structures were simplified and potential cost savings were identified.
On October 30, 2002, we began the STAR program for value creation and inte-
gration. At that time, Deutsche Post AG had direct or indirect holdings of more than
1% in over 900 companies, and of more than 50% in over 750 of them. Since then, a
STAR project has been addressing the Group’s legal structure. In every country in which
we operate, we organize our activities in as few companies as possible. It is our aim to
reduce the number of companies by up to 300. We are achieving this aim by liquidating
companies, merging them or also selling our interests in them, to the extent that the
companies do not belong to our core business. In the year under review, we succeeded in
reducing the number of legally independent units within the Group substantially, and in
improving our legal structure for tax purposes. By doing this, we are also reducing our
administration costs and furthering the process of integrating our operations.
International presence further expanded through acquisitions
In 2004, the Group again expanded its strategic positions not only through organic
growth, but also by means of acquisitions. Our most significant acquisitions and invest-
ments in companies in the MAIL Corporate Division were:
In January 2004, Deutsche Post Global Mail acquired the British company Speed-
mail International Limited, one of the few licensed postal companies which are not
only active on the national mail market in the business-to-business* segment, but
also transport international business mail to and from the UK.
In April 2004, Deutsche Post Global Mail acquired the 30% holding in its Inter-
landen B.V. joint venture previously owned by the Wegener group, and now owns
100% of this delivery company for unaddressed advertising mail in the Netherlands.
In addition, we made great progress in the USA, the largest national mail market in
the world. In the second quarter of 2004, Deutsche Post Global Mail acquired the
mail services company SmartMail. We also acquired selected assets and liabilities
of QuikPak and incorporated them into SmartMail as part of an asset deal. The two
companies have complementary product ranges: SmartMail is the leading provider
of transport and sorting services in the field of flats and small parcels. QuikPak is
the market leader for all catalog-related services. This now allows us to offer our
customers in the USA one-stop national and cross-border mail services.
Business Developments
* These terms are explained in the Glossary 63
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