Securicor Omega Express (SOE) is to handle logistics for the UK arm of Hella, the German automotive components manufacturer. SOE will deliver Headlights and auto spares traffic throughout the UK and mainland Europe.
Read MoreDeutsche Post World Net has acquired the Dutch R.P. Holding B.V., headquartered in Zwijndrecht, with the parcel companies Expresse Partners and Routing Partners. RP Holdings offers transport services for standardised single parcels, pallets and express shipments in the Benelux market.
Read MoreThe cult of equity appears to be losing its grip on U.K. pension plans, which are expected to begin substantially increasing and reworking their fixed-income allocations this year.
Anthony Ashton, head of U.K. investment at Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow, London, expects typical fixed-income allocations to double – to between 40% and 50% of plan assets – in the next five years. Currently, U.K. pension plans have fixed-income allocations between 15% and 20% of total assets. The £15.6 billion ($25.5 billion) Royal Mail Pension Plan is poised to enlarge and diversify its £1.7 billion bond portfolio this year, according to Gerry Degaute, chief executive of the Royal Mail Pensions Trustees Ltd., London.
Read MoreRoyal Mail’s newly restructured marketing division announces the start of the search for a more integrated marketing agency support.
With a predicted GBP50 to GBP60 million marketing spend for 2003-04, reduced from GBP80 million in 2002, the review’s emphasis will be on increasing value for money and simplifying agency management by partnering with ‘best of breed’ agencies with ‘through the line’ capabilities.
Read MoreMail, express and logistics company TPG N.V., through TNT Logistics Germany (Schrader Group), will take over the entire logistics operations for the production of the new Volkswagen Touran MPV (multi purpose vehicle). The Volkswagen Touran MPV, based on the new VW Golf V Platform, is manufactured by Volkswagen-subsidiary, Auto5000, in Wolfsburg, Germany, and will be on the market in spring 2003. Auto5000 and TNT Logistics will create more than 400 jobs, with this logistics services contract.
Read MoreSecuricor, the security services group, is to appoint new non-executive directors following criticism of a £750,000 (E1.1m, $1.2m) bonus paid to Roger Wiggs, the former chief executive who last year became a non-executive.
Major shareholders plan to demand an explanation of the payment, made at the beginning of last year but revealed only last week.
Wiggs, 63, retired as chief executive at the end of 2001. As well as £226,000 salary and fees received in the year to last September, he also received the £750,000 pay-out.
Read MoreThe Government is creating a new organisation with a GBP150,000-a-year chief executive to look after its shareholdings and advise on how it should deal with them. An advertisement for the chief executive is notably vague, however, on just what the duties would be. The appointee is expected to recruit 10 to 15 people, who will look after three state-owned corporations: Royal Mail, the Royal Mint, and British Nuclear Fuels, all of which have been considered for privatisation.
Read MoreMail order company Hermes Versand, part of German mail order giant Otto Versand, is entering the private parcel delivery market and taking on Deutsche Post. The move comes as Deutsche Post joins forces with rival mail order conglomerate KarstadtQuelle to offer a mail service from within Quelle retail outlets. Quelle is already one of Deutsche Post’s main customers, accounting for 300 million mailing deliveries, and 40 million parcel deliveries a year. By contrast, Hermes Versand has largely served other companies within the Otto group, and business customers. By the end of the month, it expects to open 8,000 branches in Germany.
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