PIN opens first Post Shop in Germany
PIN Group German private mail operator PIN Group will open its first Post Shop in a regional bank to test whether to develop a nationwide network of retail outlets. This would be Germany’s third postal network behind Deutsche Post and the planned opening of 13,000 Hermes parcel shops to TNT Post.
In a pilot project, PIN Mail will offer postal services in the savings bank of Siegen in North Rhine-Westphalia from 1 September 2007. Further Post Shops will follow in other savings banks in the north-west German state over the following few weeks. If the tests are successful, the cooperation will be extended to other savings banks across Germany.
The Post Shops will sell PIN Mail stamps and accept items for delivery through PIN Mail. The new partnership will also be represented in a joint stamp to be issued on 1 September 2007.
The pilot project is a strategically important step for PIN to make its services available to consumers and small businesses. So far, it has focused on large companies and organizations with regular mail volumes. The move is similar to that of TNT Post which will start to market its services through the 13,000 Hermes Parcel Shops in Germany from January 2008.
PIN Group, now majority-owned by the Axel Springer publishing group, is aiming to increase revenues from EUR 168 million last year to some EUR 350 million this year. Earlier this month, it was announced that Axel Springer’s logistics chief Karsten Böhrs would join the company’s board as COO with responsibility for logistics and sales, and Julian Deutz, CFO for Springer’s magazines division, would become CFO.
