New focus boosts sales and takes locker logistics to the next level
Logibag SAS, the subsidiary of leading in-night parts delivery company ByBox Holdings Limited, has seen sales soar and business boom since it took the strategic decision to diversify from 20 years of left luggage locker manufacture and transform into a fully-fledged, multi-purpose locker management and service company.
Since making the move in 2006, the company has won several prestigious new contracts with some of Europe's leading railway operators and postal service companies, not to mention witnessing a resurgence in its core left luggage business, which has led to travellers throughout Europe experiencing a long-awaited and some would say much needed transformation in the quality, convenience and sophistication of left luggage lockers at railway stations and airports.
At the same time as service sales in the transport market have taken off, postal service sales have increased seven-fold, leading the company to forecast that it will double revenue in 2007.
New railway business won recently includes a contract to take over the maintenance of 9000 locker doors at French railway company SNCF; a 4-year contract with SNCB, the Belgium railway network, through Decatel (Logibag's Belgian service partner), to install 2000 locker doors per year; and a similar arrangement with RENFE, the Spanish railway network, to install lockers at Antequera and Puente Genil stations.
Importantly, and in large part due to the SNCF contract win, the company is in contact with several more railway companies and airport operators that wish it to take over the management of their left luggage locker installations, leaving them free to concentrate on their core business without neglecting this useful source of revenue, and at the same time reversing the fortunes of a sector that has seen some decline since 2001. The concession model is now becoming more important with Logibag increasingly asked to manufacture, install and maintain locker locations in return for a share of the revenue stream from customers.
Meanwhile in the postal sector Logibag is rapidly expanding its
installation, management and communication services to postal operators that rent or purchase lockers to facilitate consumer deliveries, i.e. making delivery more convenient by directing consumer parcel traffic to a locker in a chosen location rather than the customer having to wait in all day for a delivery.
The convenience and control offered by this type of service has led to it becoming an increasingly popular trend in Europe and as part of its service offering, Logibag also manages the critically-important tracking and messaging interfaces between postal company and consumer that are crucial to the success and smooth running of the operation.
Logibag currently manages 1500 lockers across France and the UK for this type of postal service and is confident of winning more business as the model becomes more widely known and accepted.
In the future, Logibag is planning several new enhancements to its services and the introduction of new measures and technology that will ensure the company sets the benchmark by which all electronic lockers systems are judged. One of these is the facility to manage EMV credit card services that enable customers to pay using new chip and PIN cards (cash and credit), which will make the process of using a locker more manageable, convenient and secure.
"There is no doubt that our decision to focus our efforts in a new direction has been a resounding success based on what has taken place so far," says Logibag GM Fabien Pichet from the company's headquarters near Le Mans, France.
"The shift from manufacturing to service business concentrating on locker supply and management has opened doors to new markets and rejuvenated several others.
"The response has been amazing and of course I am delighted with the increased sales we have achieved. Now we have to continue what we have started by adding value to existing services and introducing new ones that respond to customer demands and reflect the modern technological world.
"I am confident we can keep the momentum going and we aim to do so by showing potential customers the many different ways lockers can be used and the potential they have to simplify both business and the way in which we live," he adds.