CDEK refused to develop a network of its own parcel terminals

The express delivery operator SDEK, which has been developing a network of parcel terminals with Omnic device manufacturer since 2020, has left the project. CDEK will continue to work in the segment under a partnership scheme with Halva. Logistics companies are forced to reduce investments due to high competition from marketplaces developing their delivery, experts say.

The express delivery operator CDEK left the joint venture with the manufacturer of Omnic parcel lockers Omnisdek LLC, follows from the data of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. Omnisdek was created to develop the OmniCDEK ATM network in 2020. In 2021, Rusbase announced that Omnic had raised about RUB 170 million from investors. including for scaling the OmniCDEK network up to 3,000 devices. According to Ecomhub, as of October 2022, OmniCDEK included 1.5 thousand parcel terminals and ranked ninth among delivery operators in this channel. In 2021, Omnisdek LLC received 75 million rubles. loss with revenue of 69 million rubles, there are no results for 2022 on the financial reporting resource.

CDEK Commercial Director Maxim Tolstobrov told Kommersant that CDEK and Omnic had a “vision” for the further development of the OmniCDEK network business. According to him, CDEK will continue to develop the direction of parcel terminals through partnership with Halva. The traffic of shipments has already been distributed to the post-amates of partner networks and the existing network of points for issuing orders, Mr. Tolstobrov explained. Omnic did not answer Kommersant’s questions.

According to OmniCDEK, up to 50% of the chain’s ATMs were franchised. One of the company’s partners told Kommersant that since the end of April, some franchise holders have begun to face difficulties due to their disconnection from the system that allows them to receive and send parcels. According to him, the SDEK team is dealing with the problem. The company also promises its franchisees to partially cover expenses due to downtime of parcel machines, but so far not all partners have managed to restart their devices, says the interlocutor of Kommersant.

Ekaterina Antsiferova, Development Director of the fulfillment operator Beta PRO, notes that the OmniCDEK project was an experiment, and its share in the total CDEK business was minimal. Having considered the labor costs and investments in the project, the company apparently decided to continue working on a partnership scheme, and not to develop its own direction in the segment, she adds. CDEK now manages more than 4.1 thousand pick-up points (PIU). Revenue of CDEK-Global LLC in 2022 increased by 15%, to 25 billion rubles, net profit decreased by 13%, to 1 billion rubles.

Commercial director of Oborot.ru Vladimir Bugaevsky says that a significant increase in the share of marketplaces that develop their own pickup points networks has a negative impact on the business of logistics companies. According to Data Insight, in 2022, the number of online orders fulfilled by logistics services decreased by 14% year-on-year, while the number of shipments via online shopping services increased by 88%. In particular, at Wildberries the number of own deliveries grew by 90%, up to 1.5 billion shipments, at Ozon — by 97%, up to 446 million shipments year-on-year, calculated in Data Insight. According to analysts, in such conditions, logistics services are forced to save budgets by reducing investments.

In early April, the PickPoint delivery operator, which managed 6,000 parcel terminals and 4,500 pickup points, announced the completion of operations to partners. The decision was explained by financial difficulties due to the withdrawal of foreign retailers and the impossibility of financing from a Western investor (see Kommersant dated April 4). In July, a monitoring procedure was introduced at the PickPoint manager, Network of Automated Pickup Points LLC.

Maria Martynova, Deputy Executive Director of Courier Service Express, says that the X5 Group network (Pyaterochka, Perekrestok) 5Post is developing most actively in the parcel locker segment. According to Ekaterina Antsiferova, the company manages to increase its share due to cheaper logistics due to the consolidation of commodity flows into parcel lockers and Pyaterochka stores. In general, adds Vladimir Bugaevsky, the model of delivery through parcel lockers remains in demand for buyers of goods with a low check in traditional online stores.

Alina Savitskaya