Ground express major Safexpress Pvt Ltd, eyeing a larger share of the domestic market, is planning to invest Rs 800-1,000 crore in the next five years.
“The amount will be raised through internal accruals and debt,” said Pawan Jain, chairman and managing director.
The company is planning to add in three years 60 lakh sqft of warehouse space to its present capacity of 40 lakh sqft, across the country.
“We are planning to add three Boeing 737s by the next fiscal to strengthen our presence in the air cargo segment,” he said. The company has 5% share of the Rs 2,000-crore air express cargo market in India .
The company achieved a turnover of Rs 500 crore in 2006-07, 90% of which came from ground operations. It is targeting a turnover of Rs 1,500 crore by 2012.
“We have planned to set up new facilities and are acquiring land in 32 places across the country. We have also planned to set up logistics parks,” he said.
Safexpress has an infrastructure base comprising 550 destinations, 41 hubs and 186 gateways. It has planned to add a truck a day to its fleet of 3,500 GPS trucks. It has placed an order of 380 trucks with Tata Motors and Ashoke Leyland.
The market size for ground express cargo in India is about Rs 2,000 crore, of which Safexpress has 255 crore. It handled 50,000 shipments a month in 2006-07, covering 752 routes.
Safexpress posted a growth of 35% last fiscal. “We are targeting tier III cities by expanding our bases to small towns for further growth,” Jain said.