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Blue Dart to go for a Rs 1,000 cr expansion
Bluedart, the express air and logistics company, plans to spend Rs 1,000 crore in strengthening its infrastructure pertaining to airports, warehouses etc.
Bluedart, the express air and logistics company, plans to spend Rs 1,000 crore in strengthening its infrastructure pertaining to airports, warehouses etc.
Of the total amount that will be invested over the next five to seven years, 60 per cent of the expenditure will be on strengthening the aviation system while 40 per cent will go towards infrastructure and technology. The year 2009 alone will see a capital expenditure of Rs 100 crore on infrastructure.
Anil Khanna, managing director, Blue Dart Express Ltd said, “All our funds will come from internal accruals.”
The company also announced launch of new products as well as new service quality initiatives. New products include time-definite delivery services, vertical-specific solutions among others. Its quality initiatives include customer centricity program, customer feedback initiative, associated branding with DHL, etc.
Explaining the rationale behind making such a big investment during slowdown, Khanna said, “All our investments will go towards fulfilling our customer’s needs and it is necessary to do that.”
He added that the slowdown had affected the volume growth for the company, which has come down from 20 per cent to 16 per cent. “While sectors such as telecom, automotive industry, IT hardware and BFSI have been affected, pharma and FMCG are still growing well,” he said.
The company has completed 25 years of operations in India this year. It has 7,121 employees, 282 facilities, services over 21,044 locations with a ground support of 5,645 vehicles and handled 72.4 million shipments in the calendar year 2007.
