Deutsche Post to spin off post offices

Deutsche Post, the German post office group, has confirmed that it intends to spin off its post offices into a separate subsidiary from 1 January 2005. The resulting entity will consist of 13 divisions and will be managed by four board members. The group argues that the reorganization will result in leaner management structures and speedier decision-making processes. Meanwhile, Deutsche Post is planning to close 1,000 of its 13,000 post offices across Germany by the end of 2005. German law obliges the group to operate at least 12,000 post offices across the country. At present, Deutsche Post operates 6,000 fully-controlled post offices, while the remaining 7,000 ones are operated by partners. Furthermore, the group intends to close down 600 unviable stationary branches by the end of this year and replace them with mobile postal service centers.