DHL 2009 Annual Report Download - page 68

Customers advertising less
In a tough economy, customers change their advertising behaviour, a tendency
that has become quite apparent in the Dialogue Marketing Business Unit. Mail-order
companies in particular advertised much less in the year under review and sent fewer
catalogues. Volumes of both addressed and unaddressed advertising mail declined. Al-
though quantities of unaddressed advertising mail rose slightly in the third quarter in
the run-up to the German federal elections, they decreased again in the fourth quar-
ter following the Arcandor insolvency. Revenue fell from  , million in  to
 , million in , a decrease of . .
. Dialogue Marketing: volumes
mail items (millions)
2008 2009 + / –  Q 4 2008 Q 4 2009 + / – 
Addressed advertising mail 6,912 6,323 –8.5 1,947 1,732 –11.0
Unaddressed advertising mail1) 4,940 4,580 –7.3 1,344 1,209 –10.0
Total 11,852 10,903 –8.0 3,291 2,941 –10.6
 Prior-year fi gures adjusted to refl ect portfolio changes.
Holding ground in sharply declining press services business
Revenue in the Press Services Business Unit amounted to   million, .  below
the prior-year  gure of   million.  e general economic trend led publishers to
reduce circulation and even discontinue some publications entirely. In addition, both
the number of pages and the weight of newspapers and magazines have fallen because
their advertising content has decreased.  e average prices for distributing these items
have therefore dropped.
E-commerce drives increase in parcels
Revenue in the Parcel Germany Business Unit amounted to  , million and was
thus on par with the prior year’s  gure of  , million.  anks to the growth of on-
line sales, we increased revenue in the German parcel market despite the crisis amongst
traditional mail-order companies, an important customer group. In the case of Quelle
GmbH, the crisis even resulted in liquidation. In the private customer business, total
volumes grew slightly. In international business, we transferred Europlus – a parcel
product – to the  division, resulting in total revenue in the Parcel Germany
Business Unit only reaching the prior-year level.
. Parcel Germany: volumes
parcels (millions)
2008 2009 + / –  Q 4 2008 Q 4 2009 + / – 
Business customer parcels 661 648 –2.0 189 183 –3.2
Private customer parcels 112 113 0.9 37 37 0.0
Total 773 761 –1.6 226 220 –2.7
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