The week that was: 9 March 2012

Rounding up the top five mail and express news stories of the week from the pages of Post&Parcel…

Post Office Ltd to roll out 6,000 new-style branches »

The UK’s Post Office Ltd announced plans to roll out thousands of new-style “main” and “local” post office branches across the country from this summer.

The plans are to be funded by part of the previously-announced GBP 1.34bn cash injection from the government, and therefore remain subject to “state aid” approval from Europe. It will all kick off with an expansion of the current pilot for the new-style main post offices and slimmed-down local post offices.

Some 50 new local and main branches will be trialled from now until the summer, in addition to the 117 new post offices already being piloted. From the summer until 2015, Post Office Ltd then intends to roll out 4,000 main branches and 2,000 local branches among its 11,800-strong network.

World Courier acquired by US healthcare specialist »

World Courier Group, the US-based global logistics company that was reportedly an acquisition target for UPS last year, is now set to be sold to US healthcare giant AmerisourceBergen Corporation.

The privately-held Group, which specialises in biopharmaceutical transport and storage, signed a “definitive agreement” with the pharmaceutical services company for a $520m in cash.

AmerisourceBergen sees the deal as particularly supporting its ambitions to expand its distribution services outside North America, since World Courier operates in 52 countries.

TNT Express signs code-share deal with Emirates SkyCargo »

Emirates SkyCargo, the air freight division of Emirates Airlines, has signed a deal to use spare capacity on aircraft owned by TNT Express.

The expanded cooperation deal comes as TNT Express seeks ways to reduce the fixed operating costs of its global air fleet in the light of relatively weak demand for intercontinental shipment.

TNT Airways, the integrator’s airline subsidiary, put pen to paper on a code-share and blocked-space agreement that will see Emirates SkyCargo placing its airline code and using cargo space on two routes, across the Atlantic and between Europe and the Far East.

Postbank sale takes edge off Deutsche Post DHL growth in 2011 »

Deutsche Post DHL reported its latest results, with its recent Postbank share sale heavily denting its growth figures, taking some of the shine off the “good progress” seen in its operations during 2011.

The year saw growth driven primarily by the company’s DHL divisions, with its mail operations showing a stable performance compared to 2010. The German logistics giant said its net profit for the last quarter of 2011 dropped 64% to EUR 175m, while for the whole of 2011 net profits were halved from EUR 2.5bn in 2010 to EUR 1.2bn in 2011.

However, revenues increased 2.1% during the last quarter (to EUR 14.1bn) and 2.8% in the full year, to EUR 52bn.

Deutsche Telekom takes on Deutsche Post at digital mail »

Deutsche Post will face major competition for its digital mail service ePostbrief later this year – from its former sister, Deutsche Telekom.

The two companies were split up as the old Deutsche Bundespost was privatised back in 1996, but are now set to go head-to-head in digital mail as Deutsche Telekom launches its “De-mail” service in a few months’ time.

A key selling point for the new “digital letter” service is set to be how easily existing business email accounts will be able to integrate with the secure communications channel.