The Hindu Business Line : XPS ties up with freight forwarders in 4 countries

XPS Global, which has got custom house agent licence in four cities in India and offers freight forwarding services, has tied up with freight forwarders in four countries and hopes to tie up with similar operators in other countries.

According to Mr Chander Agarwal, Head - New Ventures, XPS, the company has got custom house agent licence in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai and tied up with freight forwarders in China, Russia, Kazakhstan and Spain.

It is in talks with a freight forwarder in Europe, whose name Mr Agarwal did not want to disclose at this juncture.

XPS Global has tied up with Zhenhua, a Chinese logistics group, with SVT, a freight forwarder in Russia, and Transsystem, also a freight forwarder, in Kazakhstan.

At this stage, the tie-up is more an agency kind of structure, where the freight forwarder in the country concerned will receive the cargo, get it cleared at Customs and deliver it to the consignee.

Mr Agarwal said XPS was open to the idea of forming joint ventures with the overseas partners as the business progressed.

He said the cold chain business of XPS was set to grow and the company would acquire 20 trucks this year adding to the 40 it had now.

It would invest about Rs 4.5 crore on this and on the cold chain technology, where the company guaranteed that temperature inside the container would be maintained at a constant level and constant tracking of where the container was.

This was possible through a temperate data log in the container and a global positioning system installed in the truck.

The cold chain business was a capital intensive one because containers had to be imported and they attracted a duty of 60 per cent, he said.

XPS was also looking to grow its air cargo business and the courier business.

The courier business - both domestic and international - would be formally launched shortly, according to Mr P.C. Sharma, CEO - Air & Courier, XPS.

XPS Courier, the brand under which the company would launch the courier business, would enable customers to constantly track their consignment through a software developed in-house, according to Mr Sharma.

XPS, which reported revenue of about Rs 200 crore in 2004-05, is looking for a 30 per cent growth this year, according to Mr Agarwal.

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