P&O STARTS TO STEAM AWAY FROM BULK SHIPPING
17 May 2002 Associated Bulk Carriers which is 50% owned by P&O has sold four ships to its partner in the Venture, Eurotower for $45m.
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Reprieve for mail vans, Consignia will drop £300M scheme to hive off fleet
POST Office business Consignia has scrapped a £300 million plan to hive-off its fleet of 40,000 vehicles and its IT operations.
About 5,000 workers would have been affected, and the proposal was being resisted by the unions.
The company announced last year that it would hive off its vehicle and IT needs and several other activities.
But a senior executive has now told Financial Mail: ‘This policy seems to be about moving bodies off our payroll rather than actually saving money.
‘We are not convinced that it will be of financial benefit to us.’
Consignia’s change of heart will come as a blow to BT Fleet, Britain’s biggest commercial vehicle business. It already runs British Telecom’s fleet and was looking to take over Consignia’s.
FDB & Simpson Brothers win contract with Bridgnorth
FDB Distribution and Simpson Brothers (Tyneside) have signed a 3 yera £500,000-a-year warehousing and distribution contract with Bridgnorth Aluminium.
Read MorePost Office gets set for shake up
THE Government is to appoint a separate chairman to Post Office Ltd, which could pave the way for the demerger of the nationwide post office counters business from the Royal Mail and Parcelforce. Consignia, the Post Office’s parent company, is expected to announce within the next few weeks that the counters operation, which includes the network of 17,500 sub-post offices, made a loss last year of more than pounds 100m. Allan Leighton, Consignia’s chairman, is thought to have warned ministers that the group can no longer fund losses in the counters business.
Read MoreConsignia 'close to insolvency'
Loss-making post operator Consignia faces insolvency unless it can win government support, a report said.
Company chairman Allan Leighton, proposing to lay-off 30,000 postal staff in an effort to regain profitability, has warned that the firm will be unable to guarantee its solvency unless it is, effectively, underwritten by the government, The Observer newspaper said.
“We are losing money to such an extent that if we don’t get comfort from the government technically we are trading insolvently,” a source told the newspaper.
Interview with David Mills, CEO Post Office Ltd
David Mills has been in position as chief executive of Post Office Ltd, which controls the 16,000-strong branch network, for only a month after a 40-year career in banking. But in his own view he is anything but a City boy parachuted into a public organisation: “I am just a seasoned, professional manager.”
The challenge before him is immense. Putting aside the huge difficulties that face the larger Consignia group (of which Mills is now a board director), the Post Office’s branch network is in crisis. Though it might not be losing the estimated £1.5million a day haemorrhaging out of Parcelforce, Post Office Ltd’s last available figures show that in the financial year 2000/2001, the organisation lost £53million.
Read MoreWatchdog may delay opening up postal market
Ministers are confident the postal regulator will water down plans to open the market to competition when it reveals its plans next week.
Postcomm has faced criticism of the speed of its plans, which would open the UK market to competition ahead of Europe. Patricia Hewitt, trade and industry secretary, is privately confident that it will slow the introduction of competition.
In a letter to Postcomm, Ms Hewitt pressed the commissioners to “consider very carefully as to the size and timing of market opening”. She wants Postcomm to minimise the risk that Consignia cannot finance its activities.
Dairies seek mail licence
Express Dairies has applied for a licence to deliver letters and parcels with the morning milk.
If Postcomm, the regulator, grants the application, the company will be given a 12-month licence to carry up to 4.6m items a year.
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