DHL continues to invest in Turkey

ISTANBUL

German logistics giant Deutsche Post DHL Group will continue its strong growth in Turkey, its CEO has said.

“We are investing 135 million euros to construct a highly advanced operation center at the new Istanbul Airport. We are ready to grow our business in Turkey and believe that there is a great opportunity to support companies in Turkey to grow and to increase exports,” Frank Appel told Turkish broadcaster Bloomberg HT.

“We will definitely continue our significant investments in the next years and have more service centers and new warehouses,” he added. 

Answering a question about the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, Appel referred to the accelerated growth of e-commerce.

“COVID-19 had a significant impact on all industries, but the consumer behavior changed from the first lockdown to the second one. In the beginning, people were more uncertain about their jobs, while in the second lockdown phase people started to continue to buy products. People bought more and more online and this has lead to a massive surge in e-commerce volumes. In 2021, we will see a strong continuation of these e-commerce sales and also an acceleration in the business to business sector again,” he said.

Appel also said he is optimistic about the vaccine distribution process and the additional positive impact it will have on the global economy.

“Pharmaceutical companies will further expand their production capacities, and together with the pharmaceutical industry, we are well prepared to distribute vaccines globally. I believe that many people around the world, including Turkey, will have access to vaccines by the end of summer, and probably tourism will also start in summer again. I am pretty optimistic that we should see a normalization of lives during the second half of the year,” Appel said.

Deutsche Post DHL Group has 550,000 employees worldwide.