German Deutsche Post to close down up to 1,000 post offices

Deutsche Post, the German postal service operator, has confirmed that it is examining the viability of its small post offices. Market experts are speculating that up to 1,000 post offices might be closed down and will be partly replaced by postal agencies based at food shops, while German trade union Verdi believes that up to 1,700 post offices might be shut down.

Deutsche Post, which currently operates around 13,000 post offices across Germany, is legally obliged to keep 12,000 post offices. At present, around 6,000 of the branches are real post offices, while the remaining 7,000 are postal agencies. Staff of the post offices affected by closure will be employed elsewhere. Furthermore, the group is planning to integrate Deutsche Post Retail and Deutsche Post Vertriebsgesellschaft into the parent company, which employs 20,000 members of staff in Germany. Pay negotiations with trade unions will be complicated because the group employs both civil servants and salaried staff.