Swiss Post to roll out new look in 170 post offices

Swiss Post is giving its post offices a facelift and ramping up its retail product range in the coming months, with a focus on making more of third party products. The company said today it will become the marketer of Apple products with the largest number of outlets in Switzerland, but it will also be pushing its own PostFinance financial products.

The sale of third-party products at post offices has become a “pillar” of the retail network, pulling in CHF 500m in sales each year to help contribute to the deficit of running an extensive post office network.

Swiss Post said it will be giving its counter halls a facelift at 170 post offices up to the end of November, slimming down kiosk items like sweets as it puts the focus onto telecommunication and finance items.

The company is planning more interactive displays of product information, such as for mobile phones.

Apple products will be a key part of the sales offer, with iPads and iPhones already available in 80 of the largest post offices, while they can be ordered for home delivery from medium-sized post offices.

Swiss Post has a network of 1,873 post offices, along with 411 partner-run postal outlets.

PostFinance

Swiss Post said PostFinance would also be strengthened in post offices, with dedicated shelves for its financial products.

“Customers will find an enhanced range of finance-related services from PostFinance and will, for instance, also be able to directly arrange a meeting with their personal PostFinance adviser at the location of their choice,” said Swiss Post.

Swiss Post’s post office division made a CHF 151m loss last year, almost 40% worse than in 2010. However, its PostFinance products saw a 3.5% increase in profits.

The retail finance division is is now managing more than CHF 100bn in customer assets.

The company opened a prototype new-look post office, in which PostFinance products were given prominent positioning, in Horgen last October.