GLS breathing down Austrian Post's neck
GLS, the European parcel subsidiary of Britain’s Royal Mail, is stepping up competitive pressure on Austrian Post through co-operation with the fuel station chain OMV, the Wiener Zeitung reported.
GLS is to open parcel shops in 180 OMV fuelling stations, country manager Klaus Schädle said. Together with parcel shops in other establishments, GLS will then have a total of 450 collection and drop-off points in Austria. This means that every third post office is now in direct competition with a GLS outlet. The parcels company said that half of its parcel shops are in communities where the post office has been closed down.
“Through this co-operation with OMV, we now cover the whole of Austria. We want a piece of Austrian Post’s cake,” said Schädle. Contracts with OMV and its fuelling station tenants have already been signed, and the new parcel shops are going to be opened during the next few weeks. The majority of the parcel shops will operate 24 hours a day.
An Austrian Post spokesman admitted that this new cooperation would be regarded as real competition but the national postal company would still have the denser network and the household name.
