Swiss Post subsidiary MailSource UK Ltd acquires UK-based Graphic Data Ltd
MailSource UK Ltd, a subsidiary of Swiss Post, has acquired Graphic Data Ltd – a company with 200 employees that specializes in digital document management. It has thus significantly expanded its outsourcing potential in the mailroom services segment for large companies. It can now offer complete work flows, including the electronic input, processing and digital archiving of documents, from a single source. These services – usually provided on a centralized basis – are increasingly being offered internationally. MailSource UK Ltd has already worked together with Graphic Data Ltd – a company well established in the British market – since 2006 in the form of a strategic partnership. The acquisition brings the number of employees working for MailSource UK in Britain to over 1,100.
By acquiring Graphic Data Ltd – based in Milton Keynes, near London – MailSource UK Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Swiss Post, is expanding the physical part of its document flows with digital processes. Primarily specialised in internal mailroom services, MailSource UK Ltd will now be able to handle the entire outsourced document management process for companies from a single source: from incoming mail and in-house forwarding through digitization (scanning) and integration into the electronic workflow to the electronic archiving of documents. This will greatly increase the competitiveness of the document solutions provided by MailSource UK, because large customers are increasingly willing to choose solutions that integrate the processing of both physical and digital mail. They also require services to extend beyond national borders to include several locations. MailSource UK Ltd, a subsidiary of Swiss Post, has acquired Graphic Data Ltd – a company with 200 employees that specializes in digital document management. It has thus significantly expanded its outsourcing potential in the mailroom services segment for large companies. It can now offer complete work flows, including the electronic input, processing and digital archiving of documents, from a single source. These services – usually provided on a centralized basis – are increasingly being offered internationally. MailSource UK Ltd has already worked together with Graphic Data Ltd – a company well established in the British market – since 2006 in the form of a strategic partnership. The acquisition brings the number of employees working for MailSource UK in Britain to over 1,100.
By acquiring Graphic Data Ltd – based in Milton Keynes, near London – MailSource UK Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Swiss Post, is expanding the physical part of its document flows with digital processes. Primarily specialised in internal mailroom services, MailSource UK Ltd will now be able to handle the entire outsourced document management process for companies from a single source: from incoming mail and in-house forwarding through digitization (scanning) and integration into the electronic workflow to the electronic archiving of documents. This will greatly increase the competitiveness of the document solutions provided by MailSource UK, because large customers are increasingly willing to choose solutions that integrate the processing of both physical and digital mail. They also require services to extend beyond national borders to include several locations. .
A tried and tested collaboration
MailSource UK Ltd and Graphic Data have worked together in the form of a strategic partnership since 2006. Thanks to this alliance, the two companies have been able to land a number of contracts. In the field of physical mailroom services, MailSource UK Ltd was already the market leader in Britain. MailSource UK Ltd, who has been acquired by Swiss Post in 2002, built up its strong position with an active and successful expansion strategy. With Graphic Data, it can now offer a wider range of services, such as credit card application processing or automated invoice settlement. Thanks to the acquisition, MailSource UK is now very well positioned in the market and able to offer its services in other countries too. Following the takeover it has a staff of over 1,100 working in the field of document solutions on behalf of several large companies in the UK. Beyond the UK, there are 300 companies in the USA, Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland that rely on the mailroom services of Swiss Post.
Two strategic thrusts abroad
For several years Swiss Post has been working to counter declining margins in its core business for letters and parcels with a targeted growth strategy abroad. Here it is focusing on selected niche markets. One of its two strategic thrusts abroad is being pursued together with Swiss Post International in its core business: in cross-border letters traffic and via alliances in the cross-border parcels business. SPI is the market leader for consignments mailed from and to Switzerland and it is also successful with a number of branches in Europe, the USA and Asia. In 2007, SPI generated operating income of 1,145 million Swiss francs.
The second strategic thrust involves the bundling of internationally oriented, postal-related services. Since autumn 2007 these have been grouped in the new Strategic Customers & Solutions (SKL) Group unit. This also includes the MailSource Group. This unit now generates over 80 pct of its operating income of almost 700 million francs abroad and has around 5,300 full-time positions in 13 countries. SKL has two distinct operations: document management (mailroom services, scanning and data post-processing) and document output (printing and dispatch). The Swiss Post unit – geared to handling the needs of large customers – also offers dialogue solutions (direct marketing, call centre and personalization of cards) plus e-business solutions (e-logistics, e-billing and e-payment).
