Inpost Case Study

Gdansk Foundation for Management Development        

MBA 25, 2nd semester

Global Business

Tutor: Tomasz Kalinowski, PhD

by Bartłomiej Wrona

Gdańsk,         26th  November, 2016

Select a Polish company that has conquered foreign markets.

InPost is the only real competitor on the market of the Polish Postal company, which          with success, thanks to the innovative, pioneering solutions, is changing and shaping a new polish market of postal and courier services. Integer.pl Group operates successfully − creating synergies between the companies of its composition − the market for postal and courier, in finance and insurance sector as well as in the rapidly growing e-commerce market.              The advantage of the Integer.pl Group is the experience and know-how and its own            organizational structure and extensive, modern facilities, technical and logistics, as well        as investments in new technologies. The competitive advantage of the company is also       proactive business and the strategy based on the development of areas unnoticed by the Post of Poland and competitive companies.

InPost SA is the parent company of the Group InPost which includes following companies:

• Polish Postal Group SA. The company was established in 2006. The fundemantal   profile of it`s activity is postal and courier,
• InPost Finance limited liability company − the company was formed in 2001. The core               business is the provision of the financial intermediation services such as deposit       accounts, insurance and postal orders.

The activities of the group companies InPost centered around services, postal and courier  services for institutional and retail clients, financial and insurance services.

As at August 31, 2016, the following shares in the companies of the Group InPost are as   follows:

• Company InPost SA − 58% of the shares has Integer.pl Investments Sp. o.o.
• Polish Postal Group SA − 100% owned InPost SA
• InPost Finance Sp. o.o.− 100% of the shares has InPost SA.

Main sorting Correspondence Group Integer.pl is equipped with the most modern sorting machines from Pitney Bowes, designed to strengthen the core business of the company's operating on the postal market.

Fig. 1. Struktura akcjonariatu Integer S.A.

[pic 2] 

Source: http://www.sii.org.pl/7073/edukacja-i-analizy/raporty-analityczne/integerpl-konkurencja-z-poczta-i-kurierami-oraz-ekspansja-zagraniczna.html [14.11.2016]

The dominant shareholder is an entity controlled by the President and at the same time         co-founder Rafal Brzoska − A & R investment Ltd. It has a 33.7% stake. Approx. 6.8% is   owned by a board member Krzysztof Kolpa also through entity controlled. Financial investors in the shareholding of shares exceeding 5% are Generali OFE (9.9%) and OFE Aviva           BZ WBK (5.2%), which acquired 131 747 shares in the last issue. Free float is high             and amounts to 44.4% of the shares. This allows a good liquidity of the shares.^[1]

Adventure business Rafał Brzoska started sales with the flyers and earnings in the amount of 125 polish zlotych. He first gave the signal to fight the monopoly of the Polish Post Office which was a symbol of the famous plaque attached to the letters. Within a few years the   company successfully created a rival giants such as Google and Amazon. His post boxes   serve 12 million customers in countries such as Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador. From the beginning they tried to enter the market of the letters and packages. At this time, the   market already active in Poland with nine the world's largest courier companies. Looking for individual competitive advantage in 2009, the idea of the InPost boxes − automated terminals allowing independent transmition and reciving shipments 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

From the mechanical side, steel cabinets − design and prototype works were led by Luke   Nowiński, Maciej Baker and one external constructor. Only fourth prototype turned out to construction, which still stands today. Electronic development company created Biatel, and for the software from the beginning was responsible the IT department of the Integer.pl    Group.

When they went into the post boxes on the polish market, most of the people managing the various companies approached with disbelief and even skeptically to the idea of ​​terminals. They claimed that it is a niche product that will not work in our market. But it turned out differently. The company's goal was to create a self-service terminals to transmit and receive the parcels.

With post boxes managed to eliminate the problem of the so-called. "Last mile", which vexes the largest courier companies. The confirmation of the effectiveness are even recent statistics, according to which traditional courier can deliver up to 60 packages a day, while the supplier to the post boxes distributes at the same time, 600-700 packages.

Fig. 2. Harmonogram wdrażania paczkomatów

[pic 3]

Source: http://www.sii.org.pl/7073/edukacja-i-analizy/raporty-analityczne/integerpl-konkurencja-z-poczta-i-kurierami-oraz-ekspansja-zagraniczna.html [14.11.2016]

Today the Inpost terminals successfully conquering another international markets. In total   they already have 12 million users and 95% of the parcel is ready for collection within          24 hours of posting. As many as 98% of users declare their willingness to re-use the service, and 94% of them recommend it to friends.

The network in Poland already has 1100 machines, and its scope includes 220 villages.     Supply via terminals allows more than 5,000 e-stores in Poland, operating under its own    domain (eg Merlin, MediaMarkt, Saturn, Komputronik, Agito, Gandalf.com.pl,                Answear.com) and 30,000 e-retailers offering their products on Allegro. According to the researches of the Integer.pl Group, statistics also show that nearly 60% of the products are received outside normal opening hours of service points. In turn, the development of the    network parcel machines in Europe is the responsibility of a special purpose company        EasyPack, in which the shareholder is a global private equity fund PineBridge Investments. Automatic terminals from Krakow are now available in 21 countries around the world.