Logistics is a key area within the Otto Group. The effort a mail-order company is required to put into logistics is greater than anywhere else in the retail business. Customer service does not end with the customer purchasing a product. In fact, all products are commissioned to meet customer-specific requirements and then delivered individually. Where large furniture is concerned, the assembly is included in the service, and, at the customer's request, the repair of large electrical equipment is also offered.

In order to be able to offer this comprehensive service under its own direction, OTTO founded the HERMES Delivery Service as early as 1972. When OTTO expanded this customer-oriented service, the government-owned "Deutsche Post" [German Postal Service] factually no longer held a monopoly. Today, the individual companies of the Otto Group still have a strategically important advantage over their competitors. The focus on customer orientation as well as the introduction of new services (next-day delivery, hanging garments, desired-date delivery) resulted in rapid market acceptance. HERMES delivers every third B2C parcel In Germany by now. Today, the HERMES Logistik Group is Germany's biggest logistics group in the B2C and C2C segment that operates independently of the German Postal Service.

HERMES transports (almost) everything, ranging from letters and parcels to furniture and large electrical equipment. The HERMES Logistik Group concentrates on the following key business sectors: parcel service, furniture and large items service, letter and information service as well as its repairs service. In the field of letter and information services the Group is excellently positioned with primeMail, a 50:50 joint venture established with Swiss Post International and a 29% share in EP Europost. Through its 10,000 HERMES Parcel Shops the HERMES Logistik Group furthermore provides its customers with a nationwide network of pick-up points for private customer parcel delivery, which can also be used by mail-order business as an alternative delivery address or a collection point for returned goods.

Please find further information on the HERMES Logistik Group at www.hlg.de