Germans aiming to join the great UK mail race
Postal wars are set to break out this year after German giant Deutsche Post said it is to launch plans to break up Royal Mail’s 300-year-old UK monopoly, writes Robert Lea.
Dutch rival TPG, owner of the TNT courier group, is also certain to follow.
Deutsche Post today confirmed it is meeting Royal Mail within a fortnight over plans to enter the corporate mail market after Business Post, the UK courier group, unveiled such a deal earlier this week.
Currently trading as DHL in the UK, Deutsche Post, is understood to want a deal similar to the one signed by Business Post and its UK Mail subsidiary.
Business Post will launch a service from April to handle the bulk mailing of mobile phone companies or financial firms.
“What information we have looks positive and encouraging,” said Deutsche Post UK director Tony Alsop.
He said that, assuming meetings with Royal Mail to gain access to its network are on the same favourable terms offered to Business Post, Deutsche Post could launch by the first quarter of 2005 or late this year. It aims to capture up to 5% of the £5 billion business market within three to five years.
Business Post will pay Royal Mail around 13p for bulk items, and for which the latter typically charges customers around 18p to 19p.
TPG, like Deutsche, is reckoned to be hatching plans to build its own UK postal networks by 2007, when full Royal Mail liberalisation takes effect. A TPG spokesman said: “We too are positive.”
