Deutsche Postman gives us the mail

DEUTSCHE Post chairman Klaus Knappik says he believes Australia offers the best growth potential in Asia Pacific.

Deutsche Post has transformed from a mail-delivery service to a business consultancy providing market intelligence, databases of potential customers and production of marketing brochures.

Although the market is relatively small, Mr Knappik, who visited Sydney last week, said the world’s second-largest mail operator offered Australian customers value-added services, such as direct marketing overseas.

“The world market place is getting bigger, and companies in Australia which never thought they would ever enter foreign markets may have the opportunity to do so now,” he said.

In the past, they would probably need an office overseas, he said. But nowadays operators like Deutsche Post could organise mail shots in countries far away.

An Australian university recently asked Deutsche Post to find research partners in European universities.

“If you went directly yourself from Australia to Europe, it would be much more expensive,” Mr Knappik said.

As well, a successful marketing approach in Australia may not necessarily achieve the same results in Germany, Belgium or Italy. It was important to consider the taste and culture of foreign customers.

Deutsche Post came to Australia in June 2000, when it bought Letterbox Australia, then Australia’s largest private mail company, and its subsidiary Skymail Australia.

“Letterbox has been one of the more innovative companies in international mail services,” Mr Knappik said.

“We definitely have an interesting return from our investment.

“But we didn’t buy it just to leave it here and let it do what it did before. Our whole strategy revolves around our network.”

Deutsche Post is the mail arm of Bonn-based Deutsche Post World Net, which now has a majority interest in air express company DHL and 100 per cent of Danzas, the world’s leading seafreight forwarding company.

Mr Knappik said that growth in Australia would come from taking business from existing competitors, including Australia Post, and leveraging from DHL, which has “tremendous” market penetration in Australia.

“We have a good relationship with Australia Post. We are competitors, but we are also each other’s customers,” he said.

As members of the Universal Postal Union, Deutsche Post and Australia Post feed domestic mail to each other.

Although the popularity of email has flattened growth in personal mail, Mr Knappik said international business mail was growing at 3.8 per cent a year, in a market estimated at about $22 billion.