Author: Archive

UK Mail Marketing International in merger deal with Formpro

Posted by | May 27, 2005 | |

Mail Marketing International (MMI), part-owned by Royal Mail, is merging with Formpro to create one of the largest mail specialist operations in the country.

The combined company – to trade as Formpro Mail Marketing – has attracted more than GBP10m from investors for new technology.

The business comprises Formpro’s premises at Cheddar, Somerset, and MMI’s in Bristol and Weston-super-Mare. A state-of-the-art facility will be built at Hengrove, Bristol.

Formpro was founded in 1997, while MMI was established 50 years ago in Bedminster, Bristol. Their combined resources will create a firm with GBP21m turnover.

Neil Bruce Copp, chairman of Formpro, takes the same role, Jonathon Horler, managing director of Formpro, becomes chief executive, while Mike Hughes, chief executive at MMI, has been named chief operating officer.

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Can opponents slow the approach of PIP?

Posted by | May 27, 2005 | |

With the time for raising objections to Royal Mail’s PIP deadline running out, many of those affected flocked to Postcomm’s summit last week to make their final plea. Sebastian Burford reports on whether they made a convincing argument

Postcomm’s pricing in proportion (PIP) summit, held in London last week, was billed as the last chance for the industry to voice its concerns, with more than 130 delegates gathering from all corners of the UK to vent their spleens at Royal Mail’s proposed scheme.

It may be more than three years since Royal Mail revealed plans to introduce size-based pricing (PM May 24 2002), but the controversy refuses to go away.

Since Postcomm entered its first consultation period on the changes last year (PM April 2, 2004), some 10,000 representations, including 130 individual responses, have been received – an unprecedented number for the industry regulator.

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UK Royal Mail compensation battle goes to High Court

Posted by | May 27, 2005 | |

Postwatch has won the right to seek a judicial review of regulatory body Postcomm’s decision not to enforce Royal Mail’s compensation scheme, after the High Court ruled in its favour.

It means the postal operator could be forced to shell out the GBP30m it still owes customers.

All three public bodies were required to submit evidence to the court.

A review date has not been set, but a judge will consider the legality of Postcomm’s decision not to take action against Royal Mail when it failed to meet all 15 of its standards of practice last year, resulting in the debt. A Postwatch spokesman explains: “Going to court has always been a last resort. It’s certainly not something we’re entering into lightly. However, there’s no other option available.

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UK to have national address register

Posted by | May 27, 2005 | |

Britain is to have its first national address register to improve service delivery across the public and private sectors, the government announced on Friday.

Inaccurate addresses can disrupt business deliveries, emergency response times and the collection of council tax. In the past, such problems have been viewed as modest or isolated and often resolved by the local knowledge of a postman or council worker.

But as computers and technology are increasingly used, small discrepancies in an address, irrelevant to a person, can lead to problems. A national call centre dependent on a database cannot know each locality, for example.

The aspirations for e-government, the introduction of electronic conveyancing, ID cards, offender tracking and a fraud free electoral system would all founder, if there was no recognisable address for each home.

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German govt pension fund for Telekom and Post workers needs capital

Posted by | May 27, 2005 | |

The German government’s pension fund for former Deutsche Post AG and Deutsche Telekom AG employees will run out of money next month, Spiegel magazine reported in an unsourced pre-release from Sunday’s edition. As a result of the shortfall, Finance Minister Hans Eichel will transfer funds raised through taxes to cover the pension obligations, the magazine wrote. Originally, Eichel wanted to raise 5.5 bln eur through a sale of pension fund receivables and use these monies in 2005 to pay the former Telekom and Post employees. However, Spiegel wrote that Morgan Stanley, whom the government contracted to organize the sale, has not yet come up with a plan for it.

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USPS recognised Internationally for Best Industry Practices

Posted by | May 27, 2005 | |

The US Postal Service has been honored with four awards recognising excellence in the postal sector at the sixth annual World Mail Awards event held recently in Brussels, Belgium. Acknowledged as leaders in customer service, innovation, e-Commerce and security, the Postal Service was cited as setting the highest standard for the mailing industry.

The Postal Service was represented at the event by Charles Bravo, Senior Vice President of Intelligent Mail and Address Quality. Awards were presented in nine categories ranging from e-Commerce to marketing were presented by Triangle Management Services, founders of the World Mail Awards program.

“It’s a great honor to be recognised for our industry practices,” said Bravo. “We hope that by sharing what we’ve learned, we can benefit other postal administrations.”

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Swiss Post to sell newspapers, magazines in 30 trial offices

Posted by | May 27, 2005 | |

Swiss postal operator Die Post will start a pilot project to sell newspapers and magazines in 30 post offices on June 13, 2005.

Overall 50 domestic and foreign titles will be offered for six months in the post offices, Die Post said on May 27, 2005. If the results from the trial are positive, the project will be expanded to include 1,000 post offices.

The bulk of trial post offices will be in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, including offices in Aarau, Bern, Chur, Lucerne, Solothurn, Zug, Winterthur and Zurich.

Die Post did not state when the project will be introduced in the French-speaking cantons.

The company said papers and magazines were post-related goods and represented a reasonable supplement to its core activities.

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New Zealand Datamail goes postal

Posted by | May 27, 2005 | |

New Zealand Post subsidiary Datamail is broadening its operations in Australia by partnering with Connxion, an Australian document producer. David Allen, general manager of Datamail’s document solutions group, says the partnership allows Australian companies to print and lodge business documents in the New Zealand postal system. He says the company has been working with Connxion for some time and is now ready to go live with DHL. “DHL’s central hub is in Sydney and all its billing for New Zealand customers was done from Australia at significant cost.”

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