The number of prepaid credit cards, issued by Italy’s state-owned postal services company Poste Italiane, has reached 1.2 million, the company CEO, Massimo Sarmi, said on June 27, 2005. The one millionth Poste Italiane Postepay card was handed to its owner at a special ceremony in March 2005. Between 60 pct and 70 pct of the Postepay card users are young people, Sarmi said.
Read MoreCome September 2005, Deutsche Post will be testing a new retail outlet format at some 300 locations. Working together with retail partners, the Company will set up outlets carrying a streamlined basic postal product line. In doing so, Deutsche Post is putting a sales format to the test which, with an eye to the exclusive license set to expire at the end of 2007, should be financially viable and at the same time adapted to significantly changed customer behavior. If Deutsche Post customers respond favorably, the intention is to extend the pilot project starting in the spring of 2006. Basic services such as postage stamps, parcel-post stamps and Packsets will be offered, but not special services with low demand (e.g. COD, issuing warehoused items) and banking transactions.
Read MoreDemand from small and medium-sized companies is helping shipping giant United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) post double-digit sales growth in Mexico, company officials said Monday. During the first quarter, UPS’ export business sales from Mexico, the company’s biggest Latin American market, grew by 30% versus the like-2004 quarter, building on a 60% annual expansion last year. “We have positioned the product with companies that used to have their own trucks,” Luis Arriaga, head of UPS Mexico, said in an interview. UPS has also gained customers from other transport companies, he added. “The product is actually tailor-made for any type of need that you might have,” Arriaga said, listing party favors like pinatas, electronics and automotive parts as examples of recent shipments out of Mexico.
Read MoreGermany’s finance minister Hans Eichel said the government may sell its remaining shares in Deutsche Post AG and Deutsche Telekom AG to help reduce its budget deficit, according to an interview in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. Asked how he could plug the country’s budget hole, Eichel said: ‘Without pinning myself down, we could sell our stakes in (Deutsche) Telekom and (Deutsche) Post. Of course we will take into consideration share-price developments, that is why we would again park the shares with the (state-owned) KfW bank,’ he told the newspaper. Eichel added ‘we could also sell our stakes in airports which we have not yet sold’.
Read MoreThe Department of Trade and Industry is expected to give its verdict this week on a report by the Royal Mail into its finances over the next five years. The dossier was with the DTI before the General Election and will set the scene for the Government’s own review of the future of the Post Office. The DTI is likely to give its seal of approval to the document’s findings.
Read MoreDHL Global Mail is expanding its national business-to-business network to bolster plans to cover 80 per cent of the UK by June next year.
The company is opening a mail hub in Birmingham, just a few weeks after setting up a northern division in Warrington, Cheshire.
The Warrington arm represented DHL’s first opening since the acquisition of business mail specialist Smartmail International last year. DHL also plans to open a distribution centre in Sheffield in August, and increase its London coverage in the autumn.
During the first half of 2006, it will open centres in Scotland, Northampton and Watford, claiming it will create a nationwide, end-to- end network. Tony Allsop, head of Smartmail Citispeed services at DHL, explains: “We’ve made a significant investment in our network, as we believe Birmingham is a key strategic location in our bid to build a significant postal network.
Read MorePresentation by Neelie Kroes, Member of the European Commission in charge of Competition Policy at the Dutch-Polish Chamber of Commerce Conference
Warsaw, 24th June 2005.
FedEx warned yesterday that first-quarter earnings would be affected by high fuel prices and intense competition, after increasing net profits by 9 per cent in the fourth quarter. The cautious guidance appeared to signal a slowdown in the package delivery company’s momentum, after several consecutive quarters as the industry’s star performer. Michael Glenn, vice-president of market development, conceded that the industry was becoming more competitive but insisted pricing remained “rational”. United Parcel Service, which had been losing market share to FedEx, has fought back strongly from a weak 2004 and German-owned DHL is expanding in North America. James Valentine, analyst at Morgan Stanley, said FedEx’s comments brought confirmation that FedEx and UPS were “using price more aggressively”. But he dismissed fears that the market was descending into a destructive price war.
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