Postal Digest: Milestone for Sandd; La Poste budget approval
Rounding up some more of the world’s postal sector news, including celebrations for Sandd, “conservative” budget approvals for La Poste and Estonian Post, and money transfer success for Latvian Post…
La Poste approves 2012 budget
France’s La Poste has said it is expecting to achieve at least the same level of revenue in 2012 as it did this year, but will continue cost-cutting measures.
The Group’s Board of Directors approved next year’s budget yesterday, based on expectations of EUR 21bn revenues in 2012 and overall operating margins of around 3-4%.
La Poste said its 2012 budget would support its strategy of using business income to fund development of the company to become a “European leader” in local delivery and financial services. The company will also benefit from the second round of a funding injection from the French state.
Sannd celebrates postal milestone
Dutch postal company Sandd has been celebrating this month, after passing the 600m mark for the number of mailpieces handled this year.
The business mail specialist has been active in the Netherlands since 2001, delivering items through 53 distribution centres for more than 2,000 customers. The company said the 600 millionth piece of mail sent was for the Sociale Verzekeringsbank, the national insurance provider for the Netherlands, which has been using Sandd postal services since 2008.
Rob Brakenhoff, the director of operations at Sandd, said the growth of his company had been spurred on by April’s acquisition of rival Selektmail. “The integration of the acquisition has been achieved successfully in a very short time,” he said. “This has led to an organisation with a very strong position for the future.”
Eesti Post sticks to “conservative” budget for 2012
Estonia’s Eesti Post has approved a “conservative” budget for 2012, expecting intense competition and a difficult economy next year.
The post’s board signed off a EUR 46m budget for the year today, a million-euro increase on its 2011 budget, with plans to up its investment from this year’s EUR 2.2m up to EUR 4.6m. The company aims to achieve a EUR 115,000 profit next year.
Ahti Kallaste, the outgoing chairman of Estonian Post, said: “The budget has been prepared in a conservative manner since economic forecasts for 2012 are not optimistic. In addition to the general economic climate, the company must take into account potential wage and price pressures, which given the cost structure significantly affect the company’s financial performance.”
Money transfers in Latvia double after system upgrade
Latvian Post has said money transfers carried out at post offices in conjunction with Western Union doubled last month.
The service is available in nearly 270 of the country’s 600 post offices, but the technology was upgraded earlier this year for 150 post offices, leading to speedier service for customers. Latvian Post said in terms of international money transfers, its service sees the most money received from the UK, while the most popular destination for customers to send money is to Russia.
Latvian Post said it intends to continue developing its Western Union service, improving availability and convenience, with hopes of establishing a system in 2012 that will not require the filling out of forms before a send/receive request is made.
