The week that was: 8 January 2010

It’s a new year, and you know what that means, don’t you? Oh, yes, it’s the first scintillating news round-up of 2010 – courtesy of Post&Parcel. Post&Parcel has returned from its Christmas break, feeling refreshed, and probably weighing a little more than it should do … so let’s crack on by shifting through the top news stories from the week.

Undoubtedly, the story making the biggest headlines was Home Delivery Network’s capture of DHL’s domestic parcel business in the UK, for an undisclosed fee. This leaves HDN with a market share of 17%, hot on the heels of Royal Mail, who boast 30%. The combined businesses will have annual sales of more than £600m and will deliver more than 180m parcels a year. The combination of HDN and DHL Domestic will create a sustainable delivery business in which customers will continue to experience high quality standards of service while benefiting from a broader product offering, said HDN in a statement. Brian Gaunt, HDN chief executive, seemed in jubilant mood after the deal was announced. He said: “This transaction is great news for customers of both HDN and DHL Domestic. The growth of e-commerce has transformed our marketplace and with it the demands of our customers. Combining these businesses will enable us to offer our clients a wider variety of propositions and a more efficient service. However our immediate focus will be to maintain the exceptionally high standards of service that our customers have come to expect from both businesses.”

We only may be several working days in to 2010, but that is seemingly enough for two leading executives as they announced they were leaving their top positions this week. First up was Wilson Tan, who has resigned from his position as group chief executive officer (GCEO) of SingPost. Tan is leaving to pursue other opportunities. In a statement upon the announcement, he said: “It is gratifying to see SingPost develop from strength to strength and indeed to be part of its exciting transformational journey. The postal and logistics landscape has been evolving in tandem with changes in customers’ lifestyles and SingPost has been adapting and reinventing itself to stay relevant to its customers.” The following day, Alan Cook made the decision to step down from his post as managing director of Post Office. He will retire in May after more than four years at the helm of the company. Cook said: “I’m delighted to have been given the opportunity over the past four years to help build a sustainable future for Post Office Ltd and I’m honoured to have worked for an organisation which plays such an important role every day in communities around the UK.” Lastly, joining the industry this week is Jim McDonnell, who has been appointed senior vice president of global sales at Intermec. “I am very excited to join Pat and the Intermec team,” said McDonnell. “Intermec’s innovative technology, business solutions pipeline, solid customer base, and new sales opportunities provide a strong foundation upon which the company will continue to drive innovative and robust growth. I look forward to contributing to that success and being part of this world-class organisation.”

Heading over to Asia now, new plans to convert the Japan Post group into a three-company system and boost the government’s involvement in Japan’s postal system has been unveiled. Under the proposal, Japan Post Holdings, Japan Post Service Co. and Japan Post Network will be grouped into one general new company, reducing the current five-company system to three. “The move is a big step backwards for postal privatisation, which was originally aimed to bring full privatisation through the sale of all shares of the group’s two financial companies, and it will allow the government to participate in management”, said Mainichi Japan news agency.

And finally…

This story may be just over a week old, but taking for granted there was no round-up last week, we feel it deserves a mention. Royal Mail has been forced to apologise after accidentally feeding pork to Muslim members of staff at a Christmas buffet. Planned as a thank you, the gesture backfired when Muslim workers realised the scotch eggs contained pork.