Austrian Post to complete office closures by July 31
Austrian postal company Oesterreichische Post (Post AG) will complete the planned closure of 310 post offices by the end of July 2005, the company said at a news conference on May 12, 2005.
The work of further 47 offices will be assessed by mid-2006. Post will aim to bring these offices in the black, Herbert Goetz, the Post official responsible for the company’s network of post offices, said. If the move failed, Post will have to close them.
Post justified the closures saying that the post offices had already incurred losses. A total 20 pct of the Post network is in the red. If Post had not implemented the savings measures, its network would have collapsed, Goetz added.
With the reduction of post offices to 1,330 and the introduction of financial services and the sale of CDs and mobile phones, Post plans to bring its network under constant stable conditions.
Post found alternative solutions for each of the post offices planned to be closed. A total 76 partners and 120 postal service offices will replace the closed offices.
The closure will affect 570 employees, who will be taken over by the neighbouring post offices.
Post plans to save 22.7 mln euro (USD29.1 mln) by 2007. Whether this will bring the network into the black, Goetz did not say, but ruled out further closures till the end of 2007. Currently there are no such plans for 2008 either.
