TATEX (Acquired by FedEx 2012)

2012

May - FedEx announced it had completed an agreement to acquire TATEX.

Founded in 1976, Tatex, a privately-held company, had over 1,000 employees and a nationwide network with a central hub at Lieusaint, just south of Paris, and 35 shipping centres including six regional hubs. The acquisition would give FedEx Express access to a nationwide domestic ground network which carried 19m shipments and produced approximately €150m in revenue annually.

"FedEx has always recognised the importance of our Europe, Middle East, Indian Subcontinent and Africa (EMEA) region and its many unique marketplaces to global trade, and this acquisition shows we are continuing to systematically and strategically invest in growing our network and value proposition in these important areas of the world," said the chairman, president and chief executive officer of FedEx Corp. "The Tatex business complements FedEx existing operations in the French market, and will enable the company to provide additional local services in one of Europe's largest geographies, to its customers around the world."

The acquisition of Tatex followed the recent acquisition of Polish shipping company, Opek Sp.z.o.o. In addition, FedEx had opened 38 new stations across Europe since October 2011, including 19 in France.

April - FedEx's intention to purchase the Polish "courier" business Opek might have been a co–incidence, however the latest statement that the Memphis company was negotiating to buy the French 'B2B' Express company, Tatex, seems to suggest a trend. It was always likely that the UPS bid for TNT Express would evince a reaction from FedEx and it was tempting to see the sudden focus on Europe as such.

The latest discussions announced by FedEx on Tuesday (17/4/2012) involved a company which was exclusively nationally focussed within France. TAT Express, or 'TATE', had a revenue of €160m and was majority owned by the Papot family. The company concentrated on Express business logistics within sectors such as clothing, healthcare and automotive spare–parts.    

TATEX operated 7 regional hubs through–out France and a national depot in Paris. It had an own–account fleet of 700 vehicles. Opek was a similar business with a road freight depot network across Poland.

In its public statements FedEx couched these developments in the context of its long–standing presence in markets such as the UK and Hungary as well as its air Express capabilities in Cologne and Paris, although it was unclear where it left its long–standing relationship with other partners such as GLS.  

Certainly FedEx's moves suggested quite a different approach to that of UPS. Buying TNT Express would give UPS an existing European business serving both cross–border and global express business. It had major economies of scale by virtue of the fact it was Europe's single largest road freight operator.

In contrast what FedEx was creating appeared to be a series of largely local and nationally based operations with low levels of exposure to cross–border and global freight market segments. If FedEx wanted to attack international markets it was going to have to create an infrastructure at the pan–European level to link its acquisitions.

It seemed likely that FedEx's acquisition spree was not over. However it did appear that the path it had chosen presented quite a different challenge to that facing UPS.

TATEX (formerly known as TAT Express) was founded in 1976 to provide services to industries for the JIT (just in time) logistics market.

Its sales strategy has focused on industrial express freight with the construction of solid partnerships with the major shippers and with small and medium-sized businesses. The company has built up its network based on the combined air/road principle, permanently seeking to limit the using of subcontracting.

In 2005, GeoPost sold 70% of the capital of its subsidiary TAT Express - an industrial freight specialist - to an external investor, and subsequently disposed of the remaining 30% in December 2005. This transaction formed part of GeoPost's strategy to refocus on its core business of parcels weighing less than 30kg.