PostNL to close addressed business mail service next month

Dutch postal operator PostNL is to close the addressed mail delivery service provided by its business mail subsidiary Netwerk VSP next month. The weekly low-cost delivery service has been running since 2006 across the Netherlands, but the company said today that the economics no longer stack up. The service will end on December 17.

Utrecht-based Netwerk VSP will continue its unaddressed mail delivery service for advertising items, flyers and brochures.

In a statement, it said a social plan has been agreed with unions to keep on as many staff as possible.

“The discontinuation of addressed mail delivery will have no consequence for Netwerk VSP’s activities in the area of door-to-door delivery of print advertising,” the company said today. “A social plan has been agreed with the Works Council to assist the employees of Netwerk VSP Geadresseerd, based on the principle of guiding these employees from work to work.”

Netwerk VSP delivers more than 6.4bn items of largely advertising mail throughout the Netherlands each year, with more than 650 permanent employees, it also makes use of 22,000 independent flyer distributors and 5,000 mail delivery agents.

A spokesman for the company said 100 full-time employees and 5,000 part-time jobs would be lost as the unaddressed mail service closes.

PostNL recorded a EUR 313m loss in its third quarter results last week, suffering an 8%-10% decline in mail volumes with competition fairly fierce in the Dutch postal market.

The company is in the process of restructuring with the aim of cutting EUR 60-70m in costs this year.