PostNord seeks CFO as Lönnqvist resigns after 7 months
A corporate efficiency guru hired by Scandinavian postal operator PostNord as its executive vice president and chief financial officer last year is resigning his position, effective 1 June. Mats Lönnqvist was hired from last November as the parent company of Sweden’s Posten and Denmark’s Post Danmark looked to cut its operating costs and refocus its business towards growth areas like logistics.
Before arriving at PostNord, Lönnqvist had worked to stablise the finances at airline SAS Group, turning around the loss-making company from 2008 until April last year. He owns a consultancy that specialises in financial restructuring and the offering of “CFO for hire” services.
Today PostNord issued a short statement confirming that Lönnqvist would be resigning effective next month, and that recruitment for a successor had begun.
A spokesperson for PostNord told Post&Parcel that Lönnqvist had decided to focus on external board engagements.
The Solna-based company’s deputy chief financial officer, Torsten Fels, is acting CFO until a successor has been found.
Last week PostNord reported first quarter results that it insisted were “satisfactory” despite a 39% deop in net profits compared to the same quarter in 2011. The company is facing a 12% annual decline in Danish mail volumes and a 5% decline in Swedish mail volumes at present, largely driven by e-substitution.
PostNord, which has 40,000 employees and a turnover of about SEK 40bn ($5.6bn USD) has been restructuring its operations and developing its logistics business under CEO Lars Idermark.
Svensk Morgondistribution
It has been making acquisitions in areas of the business in which it sees growth potential, and today reported that Swedish competition authorities have cleared the acquisition of Swedish periodical delivery business Svensk Morgondistribution.
The acquisition, from publishing companies MittMedia and Vasterbottens-Kuriren, which was first announced last month, is now expected to conclude by 1 June.
The deal comes with a contract to deliver the publishing companies’ morning newspapers for a period of several years.
“The takeover of Svensk Morgondistribution is fully in line with PostNord’s strategy to develop profitable new businesses that support the mail businesses, where the group is establishing new fields of application for existing production resources,” said the company today.
“Increasing the use of the group’s vehicle fleet generates additional business opportunities in areas including morning newspaper distribution and home deliveries.”
