No amount of head's up could cushion the blow of Monday's announcement regarding DHL. If anything, it's worse than what people expected.
DHL is closing its entire domestic ground and air business by January 30. That's more jobs than had been thought.
DHL is retrenching to its roots, keeping its international business intact. You can still ship overseas, just not within the United States.
The numbers are ugly.
Roughly 10,000 jobs will be lost, at least 8,000 in Wilmington and possibly more.
Instead of shipping 1.2 million packages a day, DHL will now ship less than 100,000. DHL says that will cut its costs from $5.4 billion a year to less than $1 billion a year.
Global CEO John Mullen said in a phone conference call that the company knows its failure will hit Ohio, and Wilmington, hard. "We very much did everything we said we'd do and we have tried hard to make the business a success in that state," Mullen said.
DHL's largest air carrier, ABX Air, says the decision to cut the ground network will impact 2,000 more of its workers than the previous grim numbers. The other carrier, ASTAR, will be fighting for survival too.
"It's one of the terrible awful decisions that you have to make as a manager in a business," Mullen said.
As for the Wilmington Air Park, the largest private airport in the nation, DHL says it's talking to the state about donating it to Wilmington.
DHL will focus on its international business, but already its competitors are pouncing. UPS has this: "Welcome Center For DHL Customers", even as it tries to cut a deal to fly DHL's remaining U.S. business.
Mullen says he hopes a new, smaller deal with UPS can be reached by year's end, and those jobs will disappear several months later.
