Ukraine's Nova Post opens outlet in Rome, preparing to open in Naples or Verona

MOSCOW. July 29 (Interfax) - Nova Post (Nova Poshta), Ukraine's express delivery market leader and part of Nova Group, opened its office in Rome this past weekend, which became the second city of the company's presence in Italy after Milan.

"I think the next [cities of Nova Post's presence] in Italy will be Naples or Verona. These two cities are part of our near-term plans. Premises have yet to be found there, but there'll be openings," Ukrainian media quoted Vyacheslav Klimov, a Nova Post and Nova Group co-founder, as saying.

Simultaneously, the company will be developing delivery services to any point in Italy by building contacts with local market leaders to have access to their networks, outlets, and parcel lockers, he said.

Nova Post also plans to develop domestic delivery in Italy, Klimov said.

"One of the company's strategic principles is being quick. We can't deliver long. [Domestic delivery] will now be arranged between Milan and Rome, it will certainly be a next-day delivery service," he said.

Nova Post said in a press release that, along with opening an outlet in Rome, it has started delivering parcels to parcel lockers and pick-up points of its partners located all over the country. The delivery time to Ukraine starts from seven days.

Nova Post's outlet in Rome operates on a daily basis, and its customers can send documents, parcels, and cargo weighing up to 100 kilos to and from Ukraine, inside Italy, and between European countries where Nova Post's services are available.

Nova Post plans to launch its own courier services in Rome and its suburbs soon, as is already the case in Milan. Owing to cooperation with local logistical companies, Nova Post customers will be able to send parcels around the country soon.

In particular, starting June, customers have been able to have their parcels delivered to parcel lockers and pick-up points belonging to the partner network GLS operating in every part of the country. Customers can receive prepaid parcels weighing up to 25 kilos whose dimensions do not exceed 41x38x64 centimeters at such outlets. Hence, Nova Post's network in Italy now includes two offices, 2,000 parcel lockers, and 4,500 pick-up points, it said.

As reported, Nova entered the French market in early July by opening its first outlet in the country in Nice, which was the hundredth outlet the company opened in Europe outside of Ukraine. France has been the 14th European country where Nova is present. It was reported that, owing to its partners, Nova Post operated 35,000 service points in Europe as of early July.

Inside Ukraine, the company expanded its network from 26,600 to 30,100 outlets, including up to 12,100 offices and 18,000 parcel lockers, from the start of 2024 to late July.

According to the European Union's statistical office, Eurostat, there were around 165,130 Ukrainians having temporary protection status in the EU as of the end of May, having grown by around 500 from April.