Deutsche Post aims for top spot in e-commerce logistics: paper

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Post is aiming for a top spot in the global logistics market for online shopping, its chief executive told a German weekly, adding small acquisitions could help achieve this. "Indeed, we want to be a global leader in logistics services for the e-commerce sector. In Germany, we're the number one already," Frank Appel told Euro am Sonntag in an interview published on Saturday. Deutsche Post, the world's biggest postal and logistics group, is best known internationally for its DHL parcel delivery business but it is keen to win more work from the global boom in online shopping. E-commerce is expanding rapidly, with online retail sales in Europe seen doubling from 2012 levels to around 323 billion euros ($440 billion) by 2018, market research firm Mintel forecasts. Appel said it was the group's goal to grow organically in the e-commerce sector. "However, smaller acquisitions ... are always possible - also in this area," he said. Deutsche Post, which went public in 2000 and lost its German mail monopoly seven years later, makes three-quarters of group revenues from its DHL logistics business, compensating for the decline in traditional letter deliveries. ($1 = 0.7336 euros) (Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Alison Williams)