The week that was: 5 November 2010
International airmail suspension in Greece, Forceville in the chair at PostEurop, and TNT reveals profit drop… Today is Bonfire Day in the UK. Whilst we are in the mood, let’s take a look at the main stories making fireworks across the mail and express world this week…
Jean-Paul Forceville has been appointed the new chairman of PostEurop, he will serve for a two year term from 2011-13. Forceville was appointed following recent elections at the annual plenary assembly held in Liechtenstein. “PostEurop has evolved over the years with an increasing role within the industry across various fields. I believe PostEurop should continue to act on its members behalf and encourage postal development, find synergies, and continue to evolve with guidance from the new board,” said Forceville. The chairman is currently director of external relations, and director of European and International affairs, at Groupe La Poste. Past positions include director general of Sofipost, deputy director of La Poste Strategic Division, and chief of staff to the chairman and CEO of Groupe La Poste. Forceville will officially take on the role from January 1, replacing Bernard Damiens. Botond Szebeny, secretary general at PostEurop, was pleased with the appointment. He said: “PostEurop has had the pleasure of having Groupe La Poste involved within the management board. We are confident that under the leadership of Jean-Paul Forceville, PostEurop will continue to develop its place in this industry and towards our stakeholders, in the interest of our members.”
International airmail in Greece was suspended for 48 hours from Wednesday after the discovery of explosive packages sent to targets across Europe. The packages were reportedly carried by UPS and TNT. One of the packages was sent to the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, while further packages were addressed to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and other European embassies. It has been reported that a further package was meant for French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Police suspect the packages are the work of an extremist left-wing group, and not by the parties involved in last Friday’s occurrence in Yemen. Greek police said airmail was suspended in order to carry out extensive screening of mail and parcels. Two controlled explosions were carried out on two parcel bombs in the cargo terminal at Athens airport on Tuesday, Europol and the European Court of Justice was the intended destination. In response, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou announced that “democracy will not be terrorised. The irresponsible and mindless acts of those who aim to undermine the efforts of the Greek people to put the country and the economy back on track will not succeed.”
In the Netherlands this week, TNT reported a profit slump of 24% during the Group’s third quarter. The Group made a profit of EUR 75m, compared to EUR 99m for Q3 2008. Operating income stood at EUR 143m, a drop EUR 36m year-on-year, whilst the underlying total was reported to be at EUR 157m (EUR 187m). Despite of the results, TNT said plans to separate its mail and express businesses remain on track. TNT’s CEO Peter Bakker said: “Business conditions in Q3 have generally followed the trends we experienced in the first half of the year – good but not great – with a continuation of the general recovery of activity levels held back by a difficult pricing environment. TNT continues to prepare for separation of Mail and Express in conjunction with the fulfilment of the Vision 2015 strategy. The internal managerial and operational separation of Mail and Express is fully on track to be effective on 1 January 2011.”
And finally…
PosTech 2011 in New Delhi will take on 14-16 March. Post&Parcel will be bringing you an up-to-date preview in newspaper form later this month. The publication will be available for free with each copy of the upcoming Mail & Express Review. Sign up here.
