Belgium Post and Western Union in talks
Belgium’s postal service is talking with Western Union, the money-transfer business of First Data, about a possible partnership as it looks for ways to turn a profit, a local daily reported on Friday. The struggling De Post/La Poste saw such a partnership as a way to improve the profitability of its network of branch offices, the daily L’Echo said. “We are talking with Western Union and with other companies of the same type, but we still have not taken any decision about developing a money transfer business,” it quoted a Post spokesman as saying.
But L’Echo cited Western Union’s regional representative as saying talks could be completed in the first quarter of next year.
The head of the postal service, Johnny Thijs, said in a newspaper interview in August that it needed a partner to help it catch up with its Dutch and German peers that were years ahead in the modernisation of their services.
De Post/La Poste had a net loss of more than 40 million euros last year as it failed to adjust to the decline in the number of letters sent through its network.
Western Union has three partners in Belgium but the relationships are not exclusive, L’Echo said.
It already works with post services in Austria, France, Germany and the Netherlands, it said.
