TNT Express has appointed a new chief executive as the Dutch company seeks to chart a new course after its failed takeover by UPS.
Tex Gunning (62), takes the helm at Europe’s second-largest express delivery company by revenues as it struggles to find a new raison d’être, having abandoned its former ambitions to compete on a global scale with rivals UPS, DHL and Federal Express.
Last week, when annual results showed a net loss for 2012 of €81 million on revenues of €7.3 billion, TNT Express said it would seek to sell its arms in China and Brazil and refocus on its core European markets. The move out of China, where it was a minor player, had been expected.
But some analysts were wrongfooted by the decision to withdraw from Brazil, a growing economy where TNT Express won a 20 per cent market share by buying two local companies in 2007 and 2009, but struggled to make them profitable.
The moves underlined a sombre strategy announced last week by interim chief executive Bernard Bot, who said the company would seek further efficiencies on top of the €100 million per year in cost cuts detailed previously.
Mr Gunning, who arrives after three years as head of the decorative paints division at Dutch coatings and chemicals company AkzoNobel, is seen by some as a caretaker appointment.
Andre Mulder of Kempen Securities wrote in a note: “The strategic changes proposed last week would be better made by a new chief executive with industry experience.”
But Mr Mulder and others said Mr Gunning was in many ways suited to the job of transforming TNT Express. He was in charge of the successful integration of ICI, which Akzo Nobel acquired in 2008, and guided its US decorative paints business through a turnaround before selling it to PPG in December. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013)