New Deutsche Post retail outlet format
Come September 2005, Deutsche Post will be testing a new retail outlet format at some 300 locations. Working together with retail partners, the Company will set up outlets carrying a streamlined basic postal product line.
In doing so, Deutsche Post is putting a sales format to the test which, with an eye to the exclusive license set to expire at the end of 2007, should be financially viable and at the same time adapted to significantly changed customer behavior. If Deutsche Post customers respond favorably, the intention is to extend the pilot project starting in the spring of 2006. Basic services such as postage stamps, parcel-post stamps and Packsets will be offered, but not special services with low demand (e.g. COD, issuing warehoused items) and banking transactions. Deutsche Post’s cooperation partners receive a result-related remuneration. In the age of the Internet, this new outlet format accommodates the greater mobility of Deutsche Post customers and the increase in private correspondence.
Against this backdrop, Chairman of the Board of Management, Klaus Zumwinkel, campaigned in Brussels in mid-June for more flexible future postal regulation in Europe. “The regulation must be as lean as possible to account for changing customer desires and allow us more flexibility than before,” in the words of Zumwinkel. “This is what I call ‘light is right’. I am fully convinced that this is the way that all participants would be best served going forward.” On this note, the pilot to be launched in September should yield up important insights.
Irrespective of this, Deutsche Post underscores that, just as in the past, it will adhere to all regulatory requirements for its retail outlet network as well as its voluntary commitment, with no ifs, ands or buts. It is not a matter of changes in the obligatory location network. On the contrary: backed by the new, more cost-effective format, Deutsche Post is expending its efforts to maintain locations outside the obligatory network already tapped for closure.
