Temu and Shein are sending a growing number of packages to Switzerland. A Chinese logistics firm now wants a share of their delivery business.
Helped by heavy advertising and rock-bottom prices Chinese online retailers are squeezing domestic e-commerce firms. Now a Chinese logistics company is following them into the market and may squeeze existing parcel delivery services.
Speedaf is building a parcel-delivery network in Switzerland which could quickly become significant, Stephan Wagner, a logistics professor at ETH Zurich, told SRF. Its planned sorting capacity—up to 50,000 parcels a day—is sizeable for a newcomer. At full tilt, that would amount to roughly 15m parcels a year.
That could make Speedaf a serious rival to Swiss Post and DPD, two of the country’s leading parcel operators. It is too early to know how aggressively the newcomer will compete on price, But cheaper delivery is possible, particularly over the medium term.
There may also be room for another sizeable operator. Switzerland’s parcel market is growing, not least because of cross-border e-commerce: import parcel volumes rose by about 12% in 2025, according to PostCom, the postal regulator. Chinese imports are an important part of the segment on which Speedaf intends initially to concentrate.
The company is building a 4,000-square-metre sorting centre capable of handling up to 50,000 consignments a day, as well as regional distribution centres in Zurich, Bern and Lausanne, according to a post on Linkedin.
Founded in 2019, Speedaf specialises in cross-border and last-mile logistics linking China with overseas markets. ZTO Express was one of its original shareholders. Speedaf Logistics (Switzerland) Sàrl was registered in Fribourg in April 2026.
Switzerland is not Speedaf’s first European market. The company’s own contact list also shows operations in Ireland, Albania, Montenegro and Serbia. Its European footprint remains selective, however, rather than resembling the continent-wide networks of the established parcel groups.
Chinese logistics firms increasingly want to control international shipments all the way including the last mile in Europe, Mr Wagner told SRF. If Speedaf can establish itself in Switzerland by handling cross-border parcels, it could eventually challenge Swiss Post more broadly.
Swiss Post charges partcularly high fees for customs clearance. For packages from outside the EU it charges a CHF 16 handling fee for a small package regardless of the value. That gives Speedaf room to compete. Its Swiss subsidiary is explicitly registered to provide customs-clearance services, alongside parcel delivery, freight and warehousing.
Switzerland’s compact geography may help. A relatively small number of sorting and distribution centres can cover much of the country, making it easier for a new entrant to build a national network than in larger European markets.
More on this:
SRF article (in German)
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