TPG

As a global company, we aim to deliver leadership for our industry, society and the world.

In 2004, we took steps towards those goals, and we established our TNT1 initiative to ensure that we continue delivering more.

At TPG, we aim for leadership in all we do. We aim to lead our industry, to be a leader in society and to use our business skills and competencies to deliver tangible benefits for our world. That’s why, in 2004, we moved to more closely coordinate our skills and activities across our three divisions – Mail, Express and Logistics – in order to achieve significant cost savings and, more importantly, to offer our customers a comprehensive range of well-integrated services that meet their individual needs.

The initiative is called TNT1 because its principal objective is to create a cohesive organisation with a single purpose – delivering more.

By leveraging our efforts in procurement, information and communication systems, shared services such as accounting and finance, and strategic human resource management, TNT1 aims to achieve additional EBITA cost savings of between € 200 million and € 300 million over the coming five years. Moreover, by increasing standardisation within and among each of our divisions, and by taking a cross-divisional approach to serving large accounts, TNT1 will allow us to grow our business by delivering more and better services for all our customers. And it will help us seize the strategic growth opportunities we’ve identified in postal consolidation, China and freight management.

We made progress in all three areas in 2004.

We’re seizing strategic growth opportunities.

In postal consolidation, we set forth in 2004 a deliberate strategy for leveraging our world-leading postal efficiency to become the frontrunner in the emerging pan-European postal market. As postal market liberalisation continues to unfold across Europe, we aim to capture opportunities through our proven abilities to innovate, to deliver efficiencies and cost improvements, and to leverage our growing scale and operational excellence.

In China we established a head office in Shanghai. China is important to us not only because of its enormous market potential, but because we’re reaching the market through our new approach – operating as a single organisation, under a single brand, TNT – and integrating our services and activities across divisions. We already gained a substantial foothold. We are the leading logistics supplier to China’s automotive industry. Through our cooperation with China Post we provide inbound and outbound international express services, and we’re exploring further strategic cooperation to leverage our expertise in mail. At the end of 2004, some 2,800 employees were providing services in 500 cities across China.

We made our first big move into freight management in 2004 with the acquisition of Sweden-based freight forwarder Wilson Logistics Group. With a global customer base of 30,000 – and 60% of revenues coming from customers with an international presence – Wilson gives us a strong position in our targeted sectors of automotive, high-tech electronics and fast-moving consumer goods, as well as a strong technology platform in shipping, tracking and logistics management. The experienced management team and 2,300 employees around the world will help us grow our presence in freight management.

We believe that true leadership extends past the borders of our own business. True leadership, in our view, means delivering more for our industry, for society and for the world at large.

We delivered for our industry, society and the world.

We delivered for our industry in 2004 through our participation in the World Economic Forum’s logistics and transport sector corporate citizenship initiative. This initiative aims to establish key performance indicators for logistics and transportation issues by facilitating bi-lateral consultations with stakeholders including customers, suppliers, environmental groups and others.

We aim to deliver more for society by making business decisions that have a positive impact on people around the globe. Our sponsorship of World Press Photo, the major independent platform for photojournalism, is one example. The organisation presents an annual travelling exhibit that highlights important world issues and events through powerful images created by photojournalists. Another example is our decision to purchase our December gift packages for employees in the Netherlands through the Fair Trade Organisation (FTO). Because FTO is dedicated to ensuring that the bulk of profits go to workers who produce the goods, our purchase helps improve the lives of those in developing countries.

Perhaps our most visible commitment to delivering more for society, however, is our partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Since 2002, we have used our business skills and resources to help WFP solve the world’s most profound logistics challenge – getting food to where it’s most needed. Our partnership includes five initiatives: joint logistics supply chain, private sector fundraising, emergency response, transparency and accountability, and school feeding support.

In addition to achieving milestones in all five initiatives in 2004, we elevated our commitment to WFP through Walk the World, our worldwide sponsored walk in support of the school feeding initiative. On 20 June, 40,000 TPG employees and their friends and family members participated in the event, collectively walking the circumference of the globe, raising € 700,000 – enough to feed 25,000 children for one school year.

Group financial highlights

Corporate sustainability highlights