Dutch mail company TNT NV increased its costs savings target to 395 million euros (USD 600.9 million) due to changes in its retail network, the firm said on Wednesday.
TNT, which had originally aimed for savings of 370 million euros between 2007-2015, said it will save an extra 25 million euros from ending its joint venture with Postbank.
It estimated restructuring costs related to this move at about 70 million euros before taxes.
Read MoreThe Austrian Post subsidiary Scherübl has opened a new EUR 1 million logistics centre for temperature-controlled pharmaceuticals in Wiener Neudorf, located next to Vienna in eastern Austria.
The new 700sqm facility includes a high rack warehouse with a continuous climatisation and a storage capacity of about 2,000 pallets. Its cooling area with a volume of about 30,000 refrigerators offers space for about 650 pallets. In addition to the product delivery within 24 hours the company will also offer product storage in two cooling areas at 2-8°C and 15-25°C. Besides permanent tracking the goods will also be temperature-controlled during delivery.
Scherübl employs 50 people at three sites in Austria. Another fourth site is planned for the second quarter of 2008 in southern Austria.
In 2007 Austrian Post acquired a majority share of Scherübl, specialised in temperature-controlled transport of pharmaceuticals. With the German pharmaceutical logistics specialist trans-o-flex/ Thermomed and the Austrian Scherübl, Austrian Post is strengthening its market position by establishing a network in temperature-controlled pharmaceutical logistics.
Read MoreMoneyGram International, Inc., announced today the completion of the rollout of three new services in over 2,800 Advance America locations across the United States. The addition of MoneyGram’s money transfer, money order and ExpressPayment bill payment services broadens the range of financial services available at Advance America.
“The addition of Advance America’s 2,800 locations to our network makes MoneyGram services more convenient in many neighborhoods and communities and gives them more choices for their money transfer, bill payment and money order services,” said Dan O’Malley, senior vice president and president of the Americas for MoneyGram. “We believe MoneyGram gives them the right choice for value.”
“The MoneyGram products complement our product diversification strategy,” said Ken Compton, chief executive officer at Advance America. “We are always looking for ways to better meet the needs of our customers, and MoneyGram will help us do that.”
Read MoreReachmedia, the new joint venture business between New Zealand Post Limited and Salmat Limited, began operation this week, providing efficient unaddressed mail services throughout New Zealand.
Reachmedia brings together Letterbox Channel and Deltarg Distribution Systems, former subsidiaries of New Zealand Post and Salmat respectively. The two companies are equal shareholders in Reach Media New Zealand Limited, a company formed in late 2007 after the Commerce Commission gave clearance to the joint venture proposal.
Reachmedia Chairman Peter Boyle, of Salmat, says the launch of the new business begins a new era for unaddressed mail services in New Zealand.
“There is huge potential for growth in the use of unaddressed mail for communication with consumers and businesses.” says Mr Boyle. “Reachmedia will work closely with existing clients to improve their return on business goals and objectives. Our experienced staff and the proven expertise in campaign planning inherited by Letterbox Channel and Deltarg will provide the flexibility to ensure the unaddressed mail channel is a simple, and highly effective, tool for our clients.”
Reachmedia Chief Executive Officer Paul Forno says, “We are very excited to launch Reachmedia. We are confident of our ability to grow and we will achieve this by doing things differently to meet evolving market needs. Reachmedia is about constantly challenging the way we operate in the advertising market.”
“Reachmedia’s combined strength and forward-looking approach enables it to offer technology advantages, transport efficiencies and the widest reaching single supplier network in the urban market,” says Mr Forno. “Reachmedia is able to target clients’ sales activity according to consumer preferences, through the company’s leading national and Trans-Tasman consumer research insights.”
Read MoreThe Supervisory Board of HUGO BOSS AG and Dr. Werner Lackas who has been the Managing Board member responsible for Purchasing, Production, and Logistics since October 1, 1997, have agreed that Dr. Lackas will leave the Managing Board of the Company as of today’s date. Dr. Lackas will be leaving on excellent terms in a move supported by all concerned. The Supervisory and Managing Boards of HUGO BOSS AG wish to thank Dr. Lackas for his many years of successful service for the Company.
Hans Fluri has now been appointed Managing Board member responsible for Purchasing, Production, and Logistics. Mr. Fluri will take up his post as Chief Operating Officer (COO) effective immediately.
Hans Fluri can look back on three decades of international management experience. Until the end of February 2008, he was CEO of Deutscher Paket Dienst (DPD) and DPD GeoPost Deutschland as well as a member of the Group Management Board of the French parent company, GeoPost S.A. Mr. Fluri has an extensive background in the brand name and consumer goods areas. He led Philip Morris Deutschland to market leadership as a member of the Management Board of the consumer goods group. From 1993 to 1999, Mr. Fluri was president of Philip Morris Eastern Europe, where he was in charge of establishing and developing the business in the former Soviet block. After this, he successfully headed up Philip Morris’ European business as president for four years, during which time he was also responsible for the global duty free business. All together, Mr. Fluri worked at Philip Morris for 24 years.
Read MoreRESTRUCTURING IN THE U.S. Following the recent USD 784M write down related to its Americas Express business, 600 recently announced layoffs in the U.S., and change in DPWN’s CEO, several European and U.S. newspapers have reported that DHL could announce either the sale or restructuring of its U.S. business at its parent DPWN’s analysts meeting in Bonn on March 6th.
BACKGROUND ON DHL’S PROBLEMS IN THE U.S. DHL bought Airborne in late 2003 and over the next few years merged its existing U.S. import/export business in with Airborne’s predominantly domestic express business. However, DP has never been able to realize its expected cost synergies and has reported an estimated USD 2.8B in losses in North America over the past 4 years.
WHAT ARE DHL’S OPTIONS? For anti-trust reasons we don’t believe that either UPS or FDX could buy DHL’s N.A. assets or complete book of business. More likely DHL will seek to further stem losses by reducing its commitment in the U.S. through cost reductions/restructuring and partnerships (outsourcing some line-haul and P&D), while making it clear they intend to remain in the U.S. Look for it to reduce terminals and push more freight towards the ground.
WHAT IS THE TIMING? DHL is in a tough position because if customers believe there is even a chance it will exit the U.S., DHL’s competitive position will be compromised. Thus action needs to be swift, but DPWN tends to be contemplative and current Teamster issues likely prevent a major restructuring before April or May. At this point we expect modest restructuring efforts to be announced on March 6th with a clear indication of remaining in the U.S. and more restructuring to come.
Read MoreTNT Post and Postbank will be concentrating on their own sales outlets for handling postal and banking business. Both companies announced their intention to transfer their combined services presently offered at the head post offices to their own TNT Post and Postbank locations over the next five years. The current arrangement of head post offices will disappear. The sales outlets in shops where TNT Post and Postbank now jointly offer their services will remain unchanged. With this plan, TNT Post and Postbank are responding to the market trend and catering to the changing demands of the Dutch consumer. The aim of the move for TNT Post and Postbank is to improve the services offered to their own customers.
The new initiatives implemented in recent years by TNT Post and Postbank aimed at catering to changing consumer requirements by locating the services where the consumer now expects to find these have proven very successful, resulting in the growth in the number of customers, customer satisfaction and sales. Over the last few years, the number of head post offices has been cut back from over 2,000 to 250.
Over the next five years, the focus on own sales outlets will result in the disappearance of the activities of the head office of Postkantoren BV in Utrecht and in the 250 remaining head post offices, accompanied by the loss of 1,850 jobs. The two shareholders, TNT Post and Postbank, will make available the financial resources necessary for Postkantoren BV to offer a social plan aimed at guiding all employees into new jobs and avoiding compulsory redundancy as much as possible. A request for a formal opinion on these plans will shortly be submitted to the works councils concerned.
Helping the environment, electronic substitution, the innovation of hybrid mail and the way that Postcomm, the regulator for postal services, sees the future of the postal market, will be discussed at a series of seminars in London.
The three days of seminars make up a ‘Post Theatre’ that Postcomm is hosting at this year’s International Direct Marketing Fair which opens from 29 April – 1 May at Earls Court 2, London.
The liberalisation of the UK postal market has brought about significant changes in the way business postal services are handled. But in parallel with liberalisation, other influences have developed, such as the rise in electronic communication and concerns about the environment.
In a Postcomm survey of business customers in 2007, one in five said they had explored alternatives to mail and had moved some of their mail to other media in the previous 12 months.
While electronic communication has led to substitution, digital technology provides further opportunities for innovation in the mails market. Consumer spending on online shopping grew 50 pct last year and all mail operators are seeking innovative ways to fulfil these orders. Hybrid mail is now available: this is an “electronic-to-physical” service which allows businesses and individuals to send letters electronically from personal computers directly to a print facility near its destination where it is printed, enveloped and delivered locally.
As well as reducing staff time and the need for paper, envelopes and franking machines for the sender, hybrid mail has a reduced carbon footprint compared with traditional delivery networks because it cuts out the need to carry mail over a long distance. Many of the major companies offering hybrid systems will have speakers at the seminar.
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