AirBorne Express, the third-largest express-mail company in the United States and the fifth-largest in the world, concluded a partnership with Romanian firm Pegasus to the end of extending its sending and collecting services.

“AirBorne Express prefers to extend its activity through strategic partnerships with local firms, thus having the advantage of being able to offer its customers competitive prices for services, at lower costs,” James Gray-Cheape, Managing Director of Pegasus/AirBorne Express, told Ziarul Financiar.

The Romanian rapid mail market will be this way disputed among four of the largest five suppliers of such services at a world level: AirBorne, TNT, which entered the market in the autumn of 1999, DHL, present on the market since 1984 and UPS.

Pegasus was set up in 1997, being entirely British-held, and started operating by internal mail in Bucharest. Subsequently, the company also introduced Mail Shot services (distribution for documents, invitations, bills, offers, addressed packages) and the Direct Mail service, through which customers can benefit from the management of very large volumes of correspondence, together with everything related to multiplication, packaging, cost administration and to the drawing up of postal formalities.

The latest service, Pegasus Floral, allows customers from abroad to choose and send bunches of flowers accompanied by a message. Orders can be sent by phone or via Internet.

Last year, Pegasus registered profitability of 15 percent against its turnover, the total number of transported packages standing at 1.5 million, as compared to the 0.5 million posted in 1998. This number does not include the sampling activity.