Thank you very much.
Members of the committee, good afternoon, bon après-midi. I am pleased to be able to speak to you about Purolator in the context of the task you have taken on, and I hope my brief remarks will enable you to understand what Purolator achieves for its customers and the contributions that Purolator makes to Canada Post. Let me start with an overview of the company.
When most Canadians hear the world “Purolator”, they immediately think of a courier, because the couriers are our most important ambassadors. For many customers, the courier is Purolator and is responsible for delivering the service as well as for the relationship that's created with the customer. This courier person gets urgent packages delivered from businesses to businesses across the country, because Purolator is the leading business-to-business courier in the country.
But we do a lot more than only a courier service. We are a large organization. We have experience. We have a very complete network across the country, and our integrated business-to-business solutions are enjoyed by many, many Canadian businesses.
Our services and solutions are, in fact, critical to many businesses, primarily in the busy urban centres. We are proud to have more than 140,000 customers, large and small, across the country, in just about every industry. We employ more than 10,000 people.
We have an iconic Canadian brand. If you ever come across brand surveys, the Purolator brand is a very strong brand, very well regarded, and a strong Canadian icon. I think the fact that Purolator is Canadian is a very important consideration.
Purolator specializes in the air and surface forwarding of express, freight, and parcel shipments, customs brokerage, and fulfillment and delivery services. We have a broad offering that we integrate together and piece together for our customers.
We have a consistent track record of profitability over the past decade. In 2015, Purolator generated $1.5 billion, which is just under 20% of the Canada Post Group of Companies' revenues. We're the second largest member of the Canada Post Group of Companies. We're 91% owned by Canada Post and, as I'm sure you have discovered in this work, it's not unusual for a postal administration to have invested, as Germany, the U.K., and other countries have done, in a courier service.
What's our role in the Canada Post Group of Companies? We bring supply chain know-how and business-to-business expertise to the group. Our foothold in the U.S. market through our U.S. subsidiary also contributes to what we deliver to Canada Post. Businesses often demand integrated solutions and together, that's what the Canada Post Group of Companies can deliver.
In Purolator, we have been focused and continue to focus primarily on the business-to-business segment of the market. Canada Post offers its services primarily to businesses that have packages to be delivered to consumers, and their reach across the country and the number of locations they have, as you just talked about with the last witnesses, is the attractiveness of Canada Post when it comes to the business-to-consumer market.
Purolator operates a network that allows on-time, next-day, sometimes time-specific deliveries. That has been the bread and butter of Purolator from the outset. Purolator also has delivered dividends to Canada Post over the last years in the order of $10 million to $11 million every year.
Our competitors are multinational and global, for the most part, although in Canada we have many regional courier companies and small operators. The big guys are there, but for sure, there are many, many small businesses and regional businesses that are in the courier business.
The business-to-business market is shrinking. Think about critical documents. Ten years ago, five years ago, that was a very important part of the Purolator business, and today we have many fewer documents being delivered on a day-to-day basis. We need to get refocused, doing a better job of continuing to be a force in the business-to-business market but at the same time looking for opportunities in the business-to-consumer market.