TNT Post to become Royal PostNL following demerger
TNT Post is set to take a new name from the end of May – PostNL – when it becomes an independent mail company from the end of next month. TNT announced its plans back in December to demerge its mail and express divisions, stating that the two were increasingly operating as separate units, with limited synergies between them.
Subject to approval by shareholders on May 25, the rebranding of TNT Post and independence from TNT is now expected to become official from May 31.
The company will be able to continue proudly carrying its “Royal” designation (Koninklijk in Dutch), TNT said today.
Its new corporate identity will remain orange, with Royal PostNL branding being rolled out to vehicles, staff clothing, postal outlets and other company resources in stages from May 31.
Outside the Netherlands, rebranding will be carried out at a later stage, the company said.
Harry Koorstra, CEO of PostNL, said the new name symbolised a “reliability and down to earth approach”, while the three-sided logo represented the three focus areas for the company of mail, parcels and e-commerce.
He said of the new brand: “We emphasise that we are a true Dutch company, with ambitions that go beyond mail and operations that reach beyond our borders.”
TNT Post processes 8.8bn addressed postal items, including 100m parcels, each day, delivering to more than 88m addresses in the Benelux region, Germany, the UK and Italy.
The company’s 77,000 staff generated a turnover of nearly 4.3bn euros in 2010.
ecommerce focus
Under the new PostNL moniker, the newly-independent mail company will particularly seek to push the flourishing e-commerce segment, its CEO said.
“Consumers are increasingly ordering goods online, with the result that we are witnessing a drastic increase in our parcel delivery business, national and international,” said Koorstra.
“Mail, in the form of direct marketing and door-to-door advertising, is a key link in the e-commerce chain.”
PostNL will increasingly direct its efforts in supporting e-commerce by offering ready to use “webshops”, and by offering to provide the entire logistics chain for online retailers.
Koorstra said: “We are helped along by our reputation as a reliable company, and by the fact that we have the largest network of outlets in the Netherlands. We see our company as an essential link between the physical and the online world. We have plenty of opportunity to develop this further and to grow along with it.”
