Worldwide Perspective
This article is an extract from the Autumn Edition of MER Magazine published in August 2018. You can read the full article as well as other articles from MER for free by visiting digital.mailandexpressreview.com.
Paul Taylor, the Managing Director of UKP Worldwide, talks to the Mail & Express Review.
Paul Taylor joined UKP Worldwide in June 2017 as eCommerce Director and has recently been appointed Managing Director, with Lee Bucktrout assuming the role of Chief Executive Officer.
Taylor has worked in international distribution for more than 20 years with some of the biggest names in the industry. One of his first ever roles before being acquired by DHL was for Herald International Mailings – one of the pioneering alternative international mail distributors in the UK. He subsequently moved to Swiss Post where he became the CEO in 2008 and oversaw the merger with La Poste to create Asendia UK in 2012. Prior to joining UKP Worldwide, Taylor was Head of Sales and Marketing UK with Spring Global Mail.
The Mail & Express Review recently found a break in Taylor’s busy schedule to find out about his plans to “take the company to the next level”.
MER: UKP Worldwide was originally set up in 2000 as UK Posting, providing fulfilment and distribution for magazines, direct mail and printed matter. Why did the company focus on this business, and how has it changed over the past two decades?
PT: These were areas Lee had considerable experience in and he had a strong instinct that he could offer something better than the services being provided at that time to clients. He had been a manager responsible for running operations in print, fulfilment and distribution at both BPC and Air Business. He understood the process, the market and the needs of his clients, and even those of his staff, incredibly well. Lee’s knowledge, his drive to always do better and his willingness to genuinely listen to his clients and come up with a service that fits were the reasons for setting up UK Postings. In the time since, he’s not changed in any way, it’s the same old Lee and that’s why we like him and enjoy working with him.
As with anyone in the postal industry, we did notice a change with digitisation as everyone wanted to have a fast, immediate and perhaps less expensive way of communicating with their customers. Print had become the Nokia to digital’s shiny new iPhone.
However, look where we are now. Our inboxes are swamped with marketing mail and digital publications. Direct Mail has seen a gradual rise again as so many messages were getting lost and success rates decreasing with the use of digital communication. Marketeers and publishers have not given up on digital communication but they have realised that to be noticed they need to stand out, not only from competitors but everything else clogging up their consumers’ inboxes and now returning to print. Luxury goods and services and high-quality publications never ever left print, recognising the credibility it has with their consumers.
MER: Please could you give some background on why you set up your US subsidiary Mail Right International, and why you subsequently created the unifying brand UKP Worldwide?
PT: 30% of our international traffic was going to the US so opening up a US office made sense, it allowed us to build a direct relationship with the US Postal Service (USPS). Accessing USPS services which weren’t open to us from the UK enables us to inject mail and parcels directly into USPS, providing better delivery times and shipping rates for our clients.
Rebranding as UKP Worldwide was an important step towards creating one global brand and allowing our clients to see that it was one company handling all of their business no matter which destination.
This article is an extract from the Autumn Edition of MER Magazine published in August 2018. You can read the full article as well as other articles from MER for free by visiting digital.mailandexpressreview.com.
