French aim to deliver our letters
The French Post Office wants to deliver letters in the UK when licences become available for operators to launch alternative services to the Royal Mail later this year.
In an interview with The Observer, Martin Vial, chairman of the state-owned French mail, parcel and financial services group La Poste, said he would consider entering the UK mail delivery market in partnership with Consignia.
Under changes aimed at opening up Britain’s postal system to competition, the Royal Mail’s monopoly on letter delivery ended in March.
Postcom, the industry regulator, is consulting interested parties on rules that would allow other operators to bid for letter delivery licences as long as they did not threaten the principle delivery throughout the country for a single stamp price.
It will be up to applicants to make proposals specifying which markets they wish to enter and where, within these confines of the regulations.
Vial said he would be interested in entering the UK letter market if arrangements could be made with Consignia to form a partnership.
‘Discussions on the licence will depend on what we could do with Consignia managers, to know what kind of alliances we can have with them,’ he said. ‘I prefer to consider what kind of alliances could be achieved with Consignia rather than going directly on its domestic market.’
Vial also said he was keen to expand La Poste’s GeoPoste parcel delivery operation in the UK, which currently accounts for 6 per cent of the market through its Interlink Express and Parceline subsidiaries.
Plans to enter the letter market were still at an early stage, and discussions with Consignia had yet to take place, he said.
But despite the prospect of a French move into the UK, Vial said he was opposed to the further liberalisation of European postal markets.
The European Commission has instigated moves for partial liberalisation over the next two years, with full competition emerging later in the decade, although progress on these plans is in doubt. Vial said he was opposed to further liberalisation without greater study of the impact of competition.
‘One of our views in France is to keep a standard price price for the stamp. If there is total liberalisation, that price will not be available.
New operators would only have activities in big towns, and they will charge a low price because the cost of delivering mail in a big town is much lower than for delivering it in the countryside. That kind of problem has not been studied by the commission.’
Vial added that La Poste would consider a partnership on the proposed Universal Bank, which will have branches in post offices.
