Year: 2007

Potter advance orders top 2 million

Posted by | Jul 16, 2007 | |

More than two million people have pre-ordered copies of the seventh and last Harry Potter book to ensure they are among the first to discover the boy wizard’s fate. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is released next week, marking the final chapter in an extraordinary publishing phenomenon.

Such is the anticipation around the final book that worldwide pre-order sales have topped two million, according to Amazon.

The online retailer’s “muggle counter” stood at 2,000,516 books ordered and counting – well above the previous record of 1.5 million for the sixth installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

With legions of excited readers expected to be waiting by the front door for their copy, Royal Mail has revealed its plans for coping with the demand.

The company expects to deliver 600,000 editions of the blockbuster on its release date – on average, one copy for every 43 homes across the UK.

Royal Mail’s marketing director, Alex Batchelor, said: “We have been working closely with retailers for more than six months to plan our Harry Potter delivery operation with military precision.

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GLS announces positive result

Posted by | Jul 16, 2007 | |

General Logistics Systems B.V. (GLS) reported its 2006/07 results showing higher parcel volumes, sales and profits continuing the positive trend of the past years.

Revenues rose by 4.3* per cent to 1.6 billion euros, EBITA by 15.4 per cent to 179.4 million euros. Shipped parcels increased in 2006/07 by 7.7 per cent to 311 million. International shipments grew by 20 per cent – an especially strong growth rate that reflects GLS’ continued investment in, and development of, its European network.

Capital investment totaled 75 million euros in 2006/07. The larger investments included new hubs and depots in Germany, France, Denmark and Hungary. In addition, GLS made a number of acquisitions to increase its presence across Europe. In December 2006, the acquisition of ABX Belgium Distribution was completed strengthening the company’s presence in the important Benelux market. In Italy, GLS acquired three more franchise areas; thereby increasing the total number of GLS managed depots in Italy to 21.

In addition to investing in the physical network, investments and the continuing development of information technology remains an area of specific focus. GLS has replaced 12.000 scanners in the last financial year, is currently implementing new scanner technologies group-wide and is preparing an online link for its entire fleet of delivery vehicles, a measure that will accelerate shipment tracking to real-time.

In 2007/8, the group plans to increase its activities in Italy and Spain and to enter the Romanian market. The GLS group is targeting revenues of two billion euros and pre-tax profits of 200 million euros by 2009.

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Postal financial services are developing at a rapid rate

Posted by | Jul 16, 2007 | |

The Universal Postal Union (UPU), a specialised agency of the UN, plays a crucial and often under-appreciated role in international movement of mail by co-ordinating postal services between member countries.
Today, the UPU’s 191 member countries plus post offices make up the largest physical distribution network in the world, accounting for billions of letters and packages processed every year.

With the mandate of promoting universal postal service, development and technical co-operation, it acts as an international forum and sets technical standards for effective postal operations and interconnecting the global postal network.

Speaking to Business Line in an e-mailed interview, Mr Edouard Dayan, Director-General of UPU, dwelt on issues and challenges before the agency.

Public-private partnerships can be very beneficial for postal operators, but they must determine the need according to their own domestic strategies. Some postal operators are also partnering with private postal operators that have traditionally been considered competition, which is why these days many postal executives talk about “co-opetition.”

In the area of money transfers, the UPU is helping member countries make the transition from the traditional paper money order, a service created by it in the late 19th century, to electronic money transfer.

Through its own international financial network, the UPU is facilitating the exchange of electronic money transfers in many member countries, thus providing greater access to such affordable services to migrant workers and other citizens.

India is actually one of the latest large countries to adopt the UPU’s International Financial System, developed by its Postal Technology Centre, which facilitates money transfer exchanges for many migrants working in India to support their families in another country.

Postal financial services, for example, are developing at a rapid rate, and in some countries revenues from this segment of activity account for more than 50 per cent of total postal revenues. The growth of e-commerce and the parcel volumes thus generated are also opportunities to consider.

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German chancellor Merkel rejects minimum wage for postal employees this year

Posted by | Jul 15, 2007 | |

German chancellor Angela Merkel told newspaper Handelsblatt she has rejected a move by her Social Democratic (SPD) coalition partners to create a minimum wage for employees in the postal sector this year.

However, she said companies in the sector could request to have their industry included in the minimum wage codex by March next year.

‘Inclusion in the wage codex assumes that various competitors can agree amongst themselves,’ she added

But the newspaper added that an intra-industry agreement was unlikely, because several competitors pay considerably lower wages than the former state monopoly, Deustche Post AG.

The SPD wants to create a minimum wage for the industry’s workers, whose wages it maintains are under threat from foreign competitors active in Germany.

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For now, Postal Service scraps plans for private carriers in urban areas

Posted by | Jul 14, 2007 | |

For now, Postal Service scraps plans for private carriers in urban areas The U.S. Postal Service has agreed not to assign new urban mail routes, including deliveries to a recently constructed Perth Amboy building, to private companies for at least the next six months.

The agreement reached during ongoing contract negotiations this week is a victory for members of the national letter carriers union, which has opposed the Postal Service’s increased use of part-time, non-union employees to deliver mail.

The contract reached between the Postal Service and the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers not only imposes a six-month moratorium, but also establishes a committee to examine future use of private contractors. The committee is expected to be made up of representatives from both the union and the Postal Service, said George Flood, a Postal Service spokesman.

The Postal Service has long employed private contractors throughout the country to serve rural routes where houses are too spread out to make the employment of a full-time letter carrier cost-effective. But this year, private contracting began to surface in more cities, including in a new building in the Bronx.

Letter carriers opposed the move and argued that putting more deliveries in private hands will lead to security concerns and a less reliable postal system. Private carriers are paid less money than unionized employees, receive no benefits, wear no uniforms and use their own vehicles.

Private contracting had become a major sticking point in the union’s contract negotiations. Letter carriers had been working under a contract that expired in November, and national representatives had said they wanted some guarantee from the Postal Service that jobs would not eventually be contracted out to private companies.

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Forecast GBP 28 bn online Sales by 2011

Posted by | Jul 14, 2007 | |

According to a recent study by retail analysts Verdict Research, online sales in the UK will almost triple over the next 5 years and they predict that online spending will reach GBP 28.1 bn in the UK by 2011 – equivalent to 8.9 pct of all UK retail spending.

The report reveals the fastest rate of growth in the online sector since the bursting of the dotcom bubble in 2001. In 2006, online retail spending in the UK grew by 33.4 pct , to a record GBP 10.9 bn, almost 13 times faster than the retail sector overall. (Verdict Research figures in this report exclude spending on services such as flights, tickets and insurance).

Despite the scale of this online opportunity, the report urges retailers to take care not to jeopardise the trust of their customers. Whilst we mentioned earlier that we’re pretty relaxed about spending GBP 2.3k online, not all online shoppers are like us and many shoppers still need great assurance that their financial details are safe online.

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The first PostShop opened in Macedonia

Posted by | Jul 14, 2007 | |

Bearing in mind the primary values of the Company – customers always have priority, Makedonska posta opened the first Post Shop in order to satisfy the customer needs and offer high quality services in the market. The PostShop will be supplied with the full range of postal products, philatelic materials, newspapers, magazines, commemorative post cards and other items. The first PostShop is located in the premises of the Ohrid Regional Centre, st.“Makedonski prosvetiteli” bb.

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Japan Post begins privatization 'rehearsals' at post offices

Posted by | Jul 14, 2007 | |

Japan Post conducted “rehearsals” Saturday at about 5,500 post offices nationwide to prepare for the planned privatization of the postal system in October, checking operations at counters and customer services that are required when it is split into four business entities and a holding company.

The rehearsals covered two of the four entities — Kampo Life Insurance Co. and a post office over-the-counter services firm, with about 40,000 staff members participating.

“We want to be fully prepared so our customers will be comfortable in using our services after the privatization,” said Michie Nakane, postmaster of a post office in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward.

The post office, located near JR Kinshicho Station, checked over-the-counter services, including money transfers.

Yucho (postal savings) Bank will conduct its rehearsal next Saturday at its 238 branches nationwide and will check its computer system, while a mail service company will later do its own checks.

About 5,900 post offices were initially scheduled to participate in the rehearsals on Saturday, but those in Kagoshima, Miyazaki and Okinawa prefectures canceled the plan because of powerful typhoon Man-yi, which was approaching the Kyushu region.

The rehearsals will run through Aug. 5 at about 20,000 post offices.

Japan Post is set to start a step-by-step 10-year privatization process on Oct. 1.

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