Business Post to hire former Post Office CEO

Business Post is hiring Bill Cockburn, a former chief executive of the Post Office, as non-executive deputy chairman.

Mr Cockburn, 59, was chief executive of the Post Office from 1992 to 1995 and stood down last year as BT’s group managing director after overseeing the restructuring of its UK operations.

Paul Carvell, Business Post’s chief executive, said: “Bill ran Royal Mail when it was a highly successful, profitable organisation. He knows how Royal Mail and Consignia work. He brings added fire power to the board and has knowledge and experience of international post offices.”

He will take up his job at at the start of April.

Business Post, based in Birmingham, is one of the country’s largest express parcel delivery companies and a rival to Consignia.

It is keen for UK Mail, its subsidiary, to win a permanent licence to operate in the lucrative bulk business mail market, following the postal regulator’s recommendation in January to remove Consignia’s monopoly on the market.

The regulator is set in the next few weeks to finalise its proposals for granting permanent licences to private sector companies.

Business Post is one of two private sector companies to be awarded an interim licence to operate mail services for business customers.

The licence begins in the late spring or early summer, and the group is seeking a 2 to 3 per cent share of the letter delivery market within three or four years.

Mr Cockburn, also a former chief executive of WH Smith, will concentrate on the development of UK Mail.

Mr Cockburn was a Post Office employee from the age of 18.

In addition to Mr Cockburn’s appointment, Business Post will on Tuesday announce a partnership between UK Mail and Pitney Bowes, the US postal services group.

Pitney Bowes will provide specially developed payment technology for UK Mail’s new services.