Former TNT Australia boss to head up Australia Post parcels business
Australia Post has hired former TNT Australia managing director Robert Black to oversee its crucial parcel operations. The state-owned company currently turning itself into a “parcels business” said Black brings a “deep knowledge” of the local and international transport and logistics sector to his new role.
Australia Post’s parcels business made A$337.5m in pre-tax earnings in the 2014 financial year, up 21% on the year before, with its profits helping to offset the spiraling losses being made by the letters business.
Black, who was TNT Australia managing director from 2009 to 2014, will start his new role as executive general manager, parcel services, from 12 January 2015.
He has more than three decades of experience in the industry, and most recently was appointed managing director for TNT Benelux, covering Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. His role heading up TNT Australia saw him leading operations in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific region.
Australia Post said his “significant” international and local logistics expertise would further strengthen its parcel services leadership team.
“High calibre”
Announcing his appointment, Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour, said Black was an executive of “extremely high calibre”.
“His global knowledge will enable him to shape the future of this dynamic business, leveraging the significant infrastructure and technology investments we have made over the past two years,” said Fahour.
“In this role, Mr Black will be responsible for providing a world-class service to our customers with an unrivalled suite of ecommerce-driven logistics, supply chain and parcel delivery solutions for consumers, local and international businesses and online marketplaces.”
Australia Post has been upgrading its parcel capabilities in the past five years to build on the current e-commerce boom, and since last year has been integrating its StarTrack parcels brand with the core network. A $595m investment programme aims to develop the company’s infrastructure to handle more than 320m parcels a year by 2019.
The company’s domestic parcel volumes grew by about 12.8% year-on-year with parcel revenue growing by 16.4% in the last year.
