EURODIS, a network for the joint international transport of parcels and pallets, has gained the Greek express service Geniki Taxydromiki as a new partner. “This brings the number of countries served by our network to 38,” says Jens Reibold, Managing Director of EURODIS GmbH. “The family-run company serves not only Greece but also the Greek-speaking part of Cyprus for our customers.”

The new partner is headed by twin sisters Nadia and Eva Varzakakou, who have been in business for 20 years. They took over the company from their father Panagiotis Varzakakos, who founded it in 1994. “Geniki is active in our core business of combined freight, transporting parcel and pallet in one shipment, and meets all EURODIS processes and quality standards,” Reibold says. “In addition, Geniki takes on hazardous goods in limited quantities, delivers both B2B and B2C shipments, and also has a whole range of interesting specialties.”

E-commerce: Geniki operates online marketplace and logistics from a single source

The company’s central hub and headquarters are located in Athens on 30,000 square meters of space. There are regional hubs in Thessaloniki and five other locations. In total, Geniki operates 330 stations in Greece. This number is expected to increase by 15 by the end of the year. Some of the stations are local delivery and pick-up bases, while others are pure pick-up and drop-off stations (pudos) that Geniki uses for its online marketplace. Via its Internet platform ebloko.gr, Geniki sells a wide variety of products ranging from cosmetics and household goods to electronics. Customers can have the goods delivered to their homes via Geniki or pick them up and return them at the pudos.

The company’s customer list includes well-known names as cosmetics brand Avon, German corporations Bayer, BMW and Bosch, sporting goods retailer Decathlon, DIY chain Praktiker, textile giant Inditex (Zara) and insurance group Ergo. In the last four years, Geniki has increased its sales from 66 to 96 million euros and its gross profit from 8 to 12.4 million.

Almost every second shipment is cash on delivery

Another special feature of the Greek express service Geniki Taxydromiki is the very high proportion of cash on delivery (COD) shipments (48 percent). With an average of 120,000 shipments delivered by Geniki every day, that’s more than 55,000 COD shipments per day.

The average shipment weight at Geniki is 1.4 kilos, which is due to a high number of relatively small shipments. Therefore, the company uses 550 motorcycles in addition to 70 trucks and 750 vans. In June, Geniki Taxydromiki purchased 20 all-electric delivery vehicles. 13 minivans and 2 electric scooters are being used at selected stations throughout Greece. Five vehicles went to a station in Athens, which is to be developed into the first completely ‘green delivery depot’.