TPG NV said its subsidiary TPG Post UK Ltd filed for an interim licence to provide bulk mail and consolidation services in the UK market.
The licence will enable TPG to start a pilot service this year, prior to the launch of activities under a full-term licence in 2003.
TPG intends to provide services to large companies, publishers, mailing houses and direct marketers.
Nightspeed Services has won a £100,000 contract from AFE Online to deliver crockery to contract caterers and distributors. The company uses sealed security cages, as well as manual sorting and loading, to minimise damage and loss.
Read MoreExpress Dairies PLC’s milkmen will start delivering post on their milkrounds after the company was granted a postal licence by the Postal Services Commission.
In a statement, the company said the licence is for an initial 12-month period. Express will use its urban delivery network of 106 depots and 3,500 milkrounds to deliver up to 4.6 mln items of bulk mail from business senders to households.
The chairman of troubled postal group Consignia has said the company will continue to make losses of #1.5 million a day for the next three years, it emerged today.
Allan Leighton also said he did not believe the service should be privatised, adding that he was “confident” his business plan would turn the company’s fortunes around.
In an interview for the BBC Radio 4 On The Ropes programme, Mr Leighton told presenter John Humphrys: “We are losing #1.5 million a day. We can’t continue to do that. We will go bust.”
When asked when Consignia was going to stop losing money at that rate, he replied: “Not for probably three years.”
And when quizzed about whether the losses would continue at the rate of #1.5 million a day, the chairman replied: “Yeah. The plan that we have in place gets the mail’s business back to profit, and in terms of cash generation, in three years.
“In the same way that things don’t go wrong overnight, you can’t get things to go right overnight.”
Michelin North America has signed a six-year, multi-million dollar agreement with TNT Logistics North America under which TNT will operate Michelin’s network of tire distribution centers in the United States and Canada. The agreement builds on a successful relationship that began in 1995 with TNT Logistics delivering value-added logistics services to Michelin Group’s operations in the United Kingdom.
TNT is expected to begin operation during the week of Aug. 5, 2002, of Michelin North America’s network of approximately 7-million sq. ft. of distribution centers in 18 locations in the United States and Canada. Michelin North America’s distribution in Mexico is already outsourced to different providers.
Following the break-up with FedEx, Indian logistics major Blue Dart Express is scouting for new partnerships. The company is likely to tie up with a new company when the existing arrangement with FedEx expires on September 30, 2002.
According to Tulsi Mirchandaney, senior vice-president of marketing for Blue Dart, the alliances could be either an exclusive tie-up like the one it currently has with FedEx, or multilateral tie-ups.
He said discussions are currently on with several international players, but a final decision on the partner and the nature of the tie-up would be announced soon.
Belgian Post has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with local telecom house Belgacom to provide secure electronic messaging, e-government applications, digital certificates and other Internet security products and services.
Both organizations hope the new venture accelerates the development and broad distribution of fully secure and authenticated electronic communications. By bringing Belgacom’s e-security infrastructure and the post’s e-government activities under one roof, they anticipate the unnamed joint venture will boost the adoption of e-government tools by citizens, private companies and public organizations.
The new venture kicks off in September. The boards of Belgian Post and Belgacom reportedly gave it the go-ahead in the last few weeks. The business will probably be headquartered in Brussels, Belgian Post officials said.
Purolator Courier Ltd., the dominant Canadian overnight courier company, is setting its sights on becoming a much bigger player in the United States, says president and chief executive officer Robert Johnson. Purolator, almost entirely owned by Canada Post, is in the process of plotting a growth strategy that would carry it far beyond its current $50-million in annual U.S. revenue, Mr. Johnson says. By pursuing niche businesses in the U.S. market, it will avoid butting heads directly with archrivals United Parcel Service of America Inc. and FedEx Corp., which have often complained about the role of Canada Post, a Crown corporation, in the courier business in Canada.
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