Facing the competition: Magyar Posta positions itself as a CEE Competence Centre

Botond Szebeny, Executive Director, International Relations, talks about the company’s international plans.

Magyar Posta has been recognised by prestigious international organisations. It boasts a dynamic product portfolio, excellent quality of service and consistent implementation of its business strategy.

The company has been consciously building a stable background to gain a significant international role.

IS MAGYAR POSTA READY TO TAKE ON A MAJOR INTERNATIONAL ROLE IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE?

Yes, we are. We have been consciously building since 2004 and our work has now come to fruition. Magyar Posta has a stable economic background, is operating profitably every year, and restructuring has been successfully completed. Our quality of service is excellent, acknowledged recently by international postal organisations such as the UPU and IPC, the latest example being the Certificate of Excellence awarded by IPC in 2008.

A service company, however, should never be satisfied. We are striving to further improve our quality indicators. Continued development and investment is made to that end. Economic success in itself is not enough and so we have modernised our portfolio, introducing new international services for which there is a genuine customer demand. Our experience clearly confirms that Magyar Posta is on the right path.

DOES THIS PROVIDE A SUFFICIENT BASIS FOR MAGYAR POSTA TO MAKE BOLDER PLANS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET?

At an international level we have done a great deal to strengthen our status and win recognition outside Hungary. In recent years Magyar Posta has positioned itself strongly in the international market. The international prestige of the company combined with our range of services is such as to create an opportunity for us to position ourselves as a regional integrator in the Central and Eastern European market.

The company is an integral part of international postal networks, and we have a range of invaluable agreements and strategic partnerships.. We intend to build ourselves into a one stop player based on our unique local knowledge, part of the value chain of customers targeting this region. In other words, if a customer targets the whole Central and Eastern European region, heterogenous in its linguistic, cultural and other aspects, then Magyar Posta should come to mind.

YOU MENTIONED THAT THE CEE REGION IS HETEROGENOUS — VERY DIVERSE.  ARE YOU NOT CONCERNED THAT WHAT IS TRIED AND TESTED IN HUNGARY MAY NOT WORK IN NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES?

No, not at all. We are not only exporting products or services tested in Hungary to the CEE region. We are also using different local products and services linked to the different local postal operators in the region, leveraging the different distribution prices and different transit times available, thereby offering our customers the best solutions. Based on our partnerships we may have the opportunity to be a real one stop shop for our customers, and become their regional postal operator.

HOW MAY THE ECONOMIC CRISIS AFFECTING THE REGION, AND INDEED THE WHOLE OF EUROPE, REWRITE MAGYAR POSTA’S PLANS? ARE YOU NOT AFRAID THAT FACTORS BEYOND YOUR CONTROL MAY AFFECT YOUR ORIGINAL IDEAS?

It is clear that the world economic crisis creates both threats and opportunities for postal operators. Magyar Posta intends to exploit the opportunities as effectively as possible. It is no secret that Magyar Posta has done this successfully in Hungary until now.

I believe that we can position ourselves in those areas opening up due to the crisis, and break into new markets more easily. All we have to do is to offer our customers services with proper value for money. We have to recognise that everyone has become more price sensitive. In this spirit we have reorganised, for example, our international parcel portfolio and we wish to restructure our express services on similar principles very soon. Besides a good price per value ratio we offer customers higher quality as well.

Obviously Magyar Posta will have to fight the big players in the international market, but we are ready for the competition. What is more, in the knowledge of work done and the results, I can confidently say we will stand up to the competition and win.