A marriage of convenience

News Clip : Business India, Mumbai

16- 29 September 2002

For all the talks of a grand alliance, it turns out to be a marriage of convenience between Blue Dart, the domestic express business leader and DHL, which recently became the world's number one logistics company overtaking Fedex. The two companies who have had troubled marriages (Blue Dart is breaking off with Fedex from 1 October while DHL went in for changes in marriage clauses with AFL) in the past have signed a 5 year contract for leveraging each other's strength.

Though, both companies said it was a win-win situation, the catch is that while Blue Dart is to be loyal to only DHL, meaning it will exclusively use the latter for overseas services, DHL is free to flirt with other domestic players and is allowed to retain its present partners, notably AFL.

Commenting on the likelihood of perpetuity of a new alliance, Bryan Jamison, area director, Southeast Asia, DHL, (he is said to have given pink slips to over 100 employees of its Singapore operations in a single night few years back), said all depended on for how long both partners remain satisfied. So, if in politics there are no permanent enemies, it seems in business, there are no permanent marriages.