Muscat: DHL, the pioneers in logistics is serving its customer in Oman for the past 42 years. Deutsche Post DHL Group CEO Frank Appel conducted a virtual road show for his employees in Oman. The road show was attended by 220 employees from DHL’s Global Forwarding and Express divisions. Being one of the market leaders in Oman, DHL offers various products and services, such as air freight, sea freight, road freight, warehousing and industrial projects to its customers. The road show ended with an exclusive interview with TOO.
Frank Appel outlined the Group’s strategy and expansion plans in Oman. Recently, DHL announced an investment in Muscat International Airport for a new facility of its Express division, and the DGF division is looking forward to re-open their branch in Duqm soon. The interview was also attended by the country managers Roy Scaria (DHL Global Forwarding) and Moustafa Osman (DHL Express).
During the interview, Frank Appel mentioned Deutsche Post DHL Group’s financial results for the second quarter of 2021. While the global economy had experienced an unprecedented downturn last year, all of the Group’s divisions made a pivotal contribution to accelerate the recovery of global trade. “Our entire team performed brilliantly in an environment that remained challenging, enabling us to achieve an outstanding result in the second quarter of 2021,” he said.
Speaking about the Group’s strategy 2025 “Delivering excellence in a digital world”, he mentioned that the four most important trends which have been impacting logistics in recent years will also shape the industry going forward, these are globalisation, digitalization, e-commerce and sustainability.
DHL in Oman has increased the frequency of its flights to Muscat to five days a week now and as demand goes up, the company will definitely adjust their services and add more flights, the CEO confirmed.
Frank Appel said that Oman is well connected to the world through DHL Global Forwarding’s ocean freight services, and also because DHL Express has established hubs in all major airports globally. When asked whether we can see some DHL logistics training centres in Oman to support the local communities, he mentioned that while the company doesn’t have dedicated training centres in the country, the divisions welcome trainees from colleges and universities, making sure that they become trained and adept in logistics once they walk out of DHL’s door (and hopefully come back when they have completed their studies). “Our inside training department facilitates such trainings. And of course, DHL Oman also participates in the Group-wide Certified initiative. With this unique approach we provide a lifelong learning and engagement journey for our employees, with the aim of creating a team of “certified” divisional experts with a best-in-class culture,” he added.
Regarding DHL’s involvement in the shipping vaccines to Oman, the CEO said since the global vaccine campaign began in December 2020, DHL has safely delivered more than 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to more than 160 countries, playing a key role in the global vaccination roll out – Oman was amongst those countries, with DHL Express handling the distribution of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines to Oman.
More than 9,000 life sciences and healthcare specialists work across DHL’s dedicated global network. They ensure that pharmaceutical and medical device companies, clinical trials and research organisations, wholesalers and distributors, and hospitals and healthcare providers are connected across the value chain, from clinical trials to point of care, and every step in between. DHL’s healthcare industry portfolio includes 150+ pharmacists, 20+ clinical trials depots, 100+ certified stations, 160+ GDP-qualified warehouses, 15+ GMP-certified sites, 135+ medical express sites, and a time-definite international express network covering over 220 countries and territories.
