Jersey Post deliver the goods
The States-owned service posted a £4.2m surplus last year, increasing its turnover by 6.6 per cent to £23.5m. Having delivered 74.9 million items of mail a 7.2 per cent increase on 2000 Jersey Post increased its contribution to the States coffers by 4.2 per cent to £2.1m.
‘2001 was a year of many achievements, including improving services, introducing new technologies, increasing our surplus and making further progress towards incorporation,’ said Jersey Post’s chief executive, John Pinel. ‘Over the next few years we will continue to build on these achievements and use them as a platform on which to improve the distribution and communication solutions that we offer.’
Jersey Post spent £2.5m on capital investment projects in 2001. These included the expansion of Promail Post’s automated document factory, moving the sales and marketing team to Broad Street, automating the sorting office and starting a two-year project to update the post office network.
During the year Jersey Post also formed an alliance with Argos Additions to distribute and deliver catalogues and products in Jersey and implemented Project Revo a £1.3m two year plan to introduce automated counter technology into post offices. That project reached a significant milestone last month when a refurbished Broad Street post office opened complete with new touch screen computers and improved facilities for the disabled. All sub post offices will receive a similar upgrade by October.
In total, Postal spent £19.3m last year compared to £18.2m in 2000. Its trading fund stands at £3.8m £400,000 less than at the end of 2000.
‘A small reduction in the trading fund reflects the unprecedented amount of change that Jersey Post is going through,’ said Mr Pinel. ‘We plan to spend £9m over the next five years to ensure that Jersey Post continues to provide a high level of service. The changes are not only technological and we are also investing heavily in our people and service to customers.’
Mr Pinel added that Jersey Post had recently attained the highly respected ISO 9002 quality accreditation and was one of three finalists in the enterprise section of the World Mail Awards following on from Post’s success at the awards last year when it reached the final in two categories, beating some far larger postal services.
