FAN Courier announces 145 million euro turnover and 27.5 million in investments

" 2018 is the year with the largest investments in our company's history: over 27.5 million euros, over 50% over what we anticipated at the end of last year. We have completed the largest investment in a warehouse - the second one in Ştefăneşti and one of the largest in the technology, the sorting strip in the new HUB, " said Adrian Mihai, one of the three founders of the company.

Constant fleet investments, storage capacity, high performance technology and staff training are constant in the company's business and serve the needs of customers and the market. In the 20 years since its foundation, FAN Courier investmentmets exceeds € 135 million, with € 8.5 million more than the company's turnover in 2017.

In the past 10 years, the courier company has increased its investment level by 14 times, and for 2019 plans include project continuation, over 15 million euros being already budgeted for this.

"Without investments, a company can not survive in the medium and long term and this is a lesson I learned paying it at that moment," added Adrian Mihai. This year, an important component of investment was technology and innovation. The sorting strip of the new HUB in Ştefăneşti accelerates the level of automation of the current activity, amid the staff crisis facing the entire local economy.

 In the first half of the year, the company announced the inclusion in its fleet of the first electric cargobike, intended for use in the exclusive pedestrian areas of Bucharest and later also in other major cities. In order to streamline the relationship with the end customer, the company has introduced a new smart ticketing application this year, which allows the synthesis of all their wishes in one place. With this help, customers can record notifications or requests directly from SelfAWB, make changes to the AWB after picking up the shipment, and change the payee's data, recipient's phone number, payee, etc. "The great advantage of this solution and the reason we have developed it, in fact, is the avoidance of customer waiting times to be taken over by an operator," Adrian Mihai explained.

For 2019, FAN Courier maintains its growth forecast, with estimates of 15% over this year's business, which will amount to about 145 million euros.

"We appreciate that the courier market maintains growth trends and e-commerce remains the main engine of our industry. Black Friday, our biggest discount campaign, is constantly demonstrating Romanians' appetite for online shopping. This year, the campaign exceeded the initial estimates, but we believe that, as far as our role in the supplier-client relationship chain, this year, we have met the quality standards we have promised, " said Felix Patrascanu, founder and managing partner of FAN Courier.

FAN Courier has become one of the largest employers in Romania in recent years, in November this year, the company has 6,150 employees across the entire FAN network, an average 7.33% increase nationwide. The number of employees in Bucharest represents 46% of the total team and their number will increase by another 100 by the end of this year.

In 2019, because the company's plans include continuing the development of HUBs in the country, the team will grow by another 10%, with blue collars - cargo handling, couriers, professional drivers and call center staff to IT.

The company tried to compensate for the personel crisis in the entire economy by opening the FAN School starting this year. "The FAN School is a functioning project, we have completed the construction and implementation of the mechanisms within the organization. We have finished the first pilot project in which more than 200 people have signed up, and the first trainee who has completed the course and obtained the driving license has recently joined our team of couriers, " Felix Patrascanu explained.

In the first part of October, GfK conducted a survey on the performance of several courier companies in Romania, based on a sample of 404 respondents, companies in Romania who have used courier services at least once in the last 3 months. The research revealed that, after 20 years of activity, FAN Courier maintains its leading position as well as public recognition, recognition and recommendation. Thus, 56% of the respondents have undoubtedly indicated that FAN Courier is the preferred courier provider, while 62% mentioned FAN as the first brand they think of when they talk about courier, up 3 percent from last year .