Finland’s Itella to change name to Posti Group Corporation

Finland’s national postal service Itella is to change its name to Posti Group Corporation from the start of next year. The company said yesterday that it will serve both consumer and business customers under the same Posti brand, which it said would clarify its identity as a Finnish postal, logistics and e-commerce service specialist.

The rebrand should also further improve customer experience, the firm insisted.

Finland Post first introduced the Itella brand for its information logistics subsidiaries in 2005 as it expanded into eight different countries abroad. The parent company itself then changed its name to Itella Corporation in 2007, in a bid to emphasise the more diversified and internationalised nature of its business.

The Posti brand continued to be used as the public face of Finland’s domestic consumer postal business, with business served under the Itella brand.

Heikki Malinen said yesterday that the Posti brand was already a traditional and respected Finnish brand, serving Finns “with dignity” for 375 years.

But, he said the Itella brand needed to be “clarified” according to the company’s market research.

“We are proud of our roots and today we are building the new Posti as a modern, customer-oriented and high-quality service provider,” he said.

“More than 80% of consumers and entrepreneurs find the name Posti more suitable for the company. Under one name, we can offer our customers a more straightforward customer experience and range of services. The change will simplify business with Posti and our own operations.”

Costly

Changing the name comes as part of a transformational strategy that is already underway, and set to run until 2020. Itella has been attempting to redirect its business in the light of dramatically falling letter volumes, and the potential growth in the e-commerce market.

Malinen revealed that the model of using two brands within the organisation had not performed as expected, causing additional expense and challenges for the company attempting to brighten its image.

For the present, the Group’s foreign logistics business operations will continue to use the Itella name, while financial management outsourcing unit OpusCapital will continue to use its own name within the Posti Group Corporation.

Malinen said: “I am very excited about this change of name and I hope that our customers will see this as a positive reform. Welcome to do business with us at Posti.”