An Post's business acumen delivers profits, but not goods
IF THERE were international awards for playing the “poor mouth”, An Post’s trophy cabinet would be bulging. On Thursday it announced it had secured E107m for its former SDS site beside the Red Cow roundabout on the Naas Road.
For the past two years, An Post senior management played down the value of the site to avoid attracting any unwanted attention from the unions. One report in 2004, from a reputable newspaper, estimated the SDS site to be worth E23m to E27m -which turned out to be E80m less than the price achieved. Hmm. The post office management even went as far as to admonish one cheeky Sunday Times reporter who had the temerity to suggest the site might be worth E70m or more.
An Post has made huge sums of money flogging non-core assets, including Ireland Online, a cellular top-up business, and now the SDS property. It would be one of Ireland’s most successful companies if only it were not so inept at getting envelopes into letterboxes.
There is a genuine case for the exchequer to claim these funds and stop post office management from pouring the money down the drain on projects such as a E100m automated mail-sorting system that requires more staff to operate than manual sorting.
