The Print Factory (TPF) has secured a two-year contract to print Sky’s transactional mail, in a deal worth in excess of pounds 5m, and bought a new London site.
The Sky contract will be printed by TPF Direct, the firm’s dedicated direct marketing and transactional mail division. The division was set up after the firm began handling Sky’s transactional mail on an ‘informal basis’ last year.
Read MorePoland’s national Post Office (Poczta Polska) promises to reach a record high pre-tax profit in 2005, and awaits a parliamentary decision on its plans to go public. After first nine months of the year the company had made a pre-tax profit of ZL500m. “Profit for the three quarters reached a historic high, and was five times higher than in the same period last year,” said Poczta Polska president Tadeusz Bartkowiak. The company has a long-term goal of being floated on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, but is currently focusing on a conversion from the special status of a public-service firm to a commercial legal entity.
Read MoreRivals of German postal services provider Deutsche Post have called for the new German government to levy VAT on the monopolist. The federal association of international express and courier services (BIEK) said that Deutsche Post’s exemption costs the treasury between 150m euros and 330m euros each year. The association believes that this gives Deutsche Post an unfair advantage over its rivals and stated that the situation could be changed immediately using EU law.
Deutsche Post, however, is not troubled. The group said that if it paid VAT, it would have to increase postage prices and that therefore EU law could not be used immediately. The head of Deutsche Post, Klaus Zumwinkel, has already stated that the group will pay VAT once the letter market is fully liberalised.
GeoPost UK has become the latest firm to challenge Royal Mail’s bulk mailing service, with its new operation, mailplus. The service, which the firm claims is up to 10% cheaper than Royal Mail’s Mailsort 2, is for mailings of more than 4,000 items. “It will also has the same kind of sortation levels as Mailsort, so there are 120, 700 and 1,200 services,” said mailplus general manager Jon Wilkins. “As a result, it’s very easy for users to switch.” Smethwick, West Midlands-based mailplus’ two-day offering sits between first and second class.
Mailplus uses sister firm Parceline’s network of 1,704 vehicles to collect pre-sorted mail and take it to Parceline’s West Midlands “superhub”. It is automatically sorted and then delivered to one of the Royal Mail’s 69 delivery centres around the UK for “final mile” delivery, enabling it to offer 100% UK coverage.
The Dutch Government will most probably not sell its stake in Dutch mail and logistics group TNT NV, and would possibly oppose the intended takeover of the company by a private equity investor, Belgian-Dutch Fortis Bank said on November 9. According to Fortis Bank, the State is not very enthusiastic about the sale of TNT’s mail activities to a financial party. It would rather accept a sale of the express and the logistics operations of TNT to a third party, like United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS). Fortis will set the advice for TNT on buy at a share price for the company of 26 euro (USD30.58). TNT’s share closed 10.8 pct higher at 23 euro (USSD27.06) on November 9.
Read MoreDeutsche Post AG said its third quarter EBIT rose 49 pct to 720 mln eur, from 484 mln a year-earlier, thanks to strong sales at its logistics and financial services units. The EBIT figure was at the high end of analysts forecast which ranged between 560-860 mln eur. Third quarter sales reached 11.028 bln eur, up from 10.648 bln, but below the 11.040-11.881 bln eur range analysts forecast because of weakness in the German mail market. Net profit was 405 mln eur, compared to 169 mln, reaching the high end of 290-408 mln eur range analysts forecast.
Read MoreDeutsche Post World Net increased its profit from operating activities (EBIT) by 19.9 percent to around 2.4 billion euros in the first nine months. Revenue rose slightly by 2.5 percent to 32.5 billion euros compared with the first nine months of the previous year. Consolidated net income grew by 51 percent to around 1.3 billion euros, after 890 million euros in the previous year. Earnings per share increased accordingly from 0.80 to 1.20 euros. Third quarter consolidated net income more than doubled year-on-year, from 169 million to 405 million euros. “We have consistently and successfully continued our global strategy and after completing the acquisition of Exel we will be the leading logistics provider worldwide,” said Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Klaus Zumwinkel. In the first nine months, the company generated half its revenue outside Germany. Within Germany, the Group also made great progress. “With the acquisition of BHW, Postbank will be the clear number one in retail banking,” said Zumwinkel.
Read MoreTNT was yesterday the subject of renewed takeover speculation after a German private equity investor said he was trying to form a consortium to bid for the company. Cornelius Geber told the FT: “I can confirm that through my [private equity] company, CG Beteiligungs AG, we are currently working on a possible deal [to buy TNT].” He said he was in talks with at least two financial investors and at least two strategic buyers, which had expressed interest in a joint approach for TNT. “We have not yet decided who to go with,” he said, adding that his plan was at an early stage.
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