Postal Digest – 350 years of postmarks; Croatian Post boosts profits
More of the latest news from the postal world, including news of a postal anniversary, improvement at Croatian Post, a national campaign for La Poste and online progress for Polish Post…
La Poste promotes results of post office upgrades
A survey on French attitudes to their postal service is forming the basis of a new national promotional campaign La Poste is running this week.
The campaign, entitled “In the words of our customers”, seeks to publicise the results of La Poste’s efforts to modernise its post offices since 2009.
It is based on a survey of 125,000 people carried out in 10,000 post offices last summer, in which 85% said staff were more attentive, 77% said they were better advised by post office staff and 68% said they were being served more quickly by the post office.
Royal Mail celebrates 350 years of postmarks
Royal Mail has issued a special series of stamps marking the 350th anniversary of the first postmark.
The UK’s Postmaster General Henry Bishop introduced the postmark in 1661, marking the day and month a letter was posted. The first postmarks to be applied by machine in the UK was in 1857, while 1917 saw the first cancellation slogan printed. The first cancellation slogan urging mailers to “post early for Christmas” came in 1925, with this year continuing the tradition of Christmas cancellation campaigns providing information on Christmas deadlines.
Stephen Agar, a spokesman for Royal Mail, said: “The introduction of the postmark 350 years ago was a world first. It was replicated around the globe in the years that followed. It is now a fundamental part of our Christmas mail services, with millions of items of festive mail carrying information on how people can help Royal Mail’s postmen and women deliver the bumper festive postbag.”
Croatian Post boosts profitability
Croatian Post has improved its profitability in the first nine months of the year, compared to the same period in 2010.
It said this week that revenues increased by HRK 7.7m ($1.4m USD) to HRK 1.2bn ($219m USD), while operating costs fell by HRK 15.4m ($2.8m USD). Net profits for the year to date were HRK 9m ($1.65m USD).
The state-owned but self-funded Post said it had reduced staff costs during the three quarters of this year by HRK 4.9m ($900,000 USD) to HRK 826.3m ($151m USD).
Successful first two years for Polish Post online store
Polish Post has seen nearly 20,000 transactions from 12,000 registered customers and half a million visits to its online store in its first two years of operation.
The website – www.filatelistyka.poczta-polska.pl – offers a range of postal products ranging from stamps, first day covers and stamp collecting albums to envelopes, packaging and cards.
Among the top-selling products on the site have been a series of stamps commemorating the beatification of Pope John Paul II and stamps celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of writer, poet and Nobel Prize recipient Czeslaw Milosz.
