Tag: Australia

Toll profits from Asian expansion

Posted by | Feb 21, 2008 | |

Australian transport and logistics group Toll Holdings announced today it is profiting from its expansion into Asia and good domestic demand. The group has made two express acquisitions in Australia but could soon sell its majority stake in the Virgin Blue airline.

The listed company, whose businesses include leading Australian express operators, announced net profits up 10.7pct to AUD 237 million (EUR 147.8 million) for the half-year ending December 31, 2007. Underlying operating profit (EBIT) rose 13pct to AUD431 million on revenues up 8.3pct to AUD 4.1 billion.

Toll Australia, covering all Australia-based businesses, improved its EBIT by 18pct to AUD 184 million on revenue up 7.3pct to AU D2.3 billion. The company said it benefited from higher volumes generated by the resources sector and buoyant retail sector demand, as well as new facilities and upgraded fleet and technology.

Although Toll does not release figures for its express businesses Toll IPEC, Toll Priority and Toll Fast, it said that “the time sensitive operations of Toll IPEC and Toll Priority continued to drive improved results”, despite Toll Priority’s one-off costs for the creation of an air linehaul network.

In July, Toll Priority launched a dedicated cargo fleet of three B737s and two ATRs, supported by 50 chartered aircraft. The B737s operate between Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, while the ATRs fly between Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. It also sealed a long-term agreement with Virgin Blue for exclusive access to bellyhold capacity on the passenger airline’s domestic and international flights.

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Latest ‘Future of Mail’ paper: “Mail Trends Update” by Fouad Nader (Adrenale Corp.) and Michael Lintell (Pitney Bowes)

Posted by | Feb 1, 2008 | |

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of press articles and statements from posts predicting that mail volumes would decline. New technologies and process innovations have been introduced, preoccupying researchers and managers in the postal and mailing industries with the impact of accelerating electronic substitution and changing customer behaviors. What are the actual trends that emerge from examining in detail the best information available from key countries? What historical perspectives, trends and emerging patterns may be useful in understanding how mail volumes may evolve in the future? The purpose of this paper is to provide further insight into the key trends identified and discussed in the previous Mail Trends Analyses by comprehensively examining the evolution of mail and analyzing postal volumes along key variables that influence mail demand. This paper builds on the considerable research that followed the original mail trends analysis and was documented in the Background Papers published at www.postinsight.pb.com for the project: “Electronic Substitution for Mail: Models and Results, Myth and Reality.” The paper also takes advantage of recent work in the study of the “Future of Mail”, also on postinsight.pb.com.

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MaxBox expands into Ireland, Australia

Posted by | Jan 30, 2008 | |

The MaxBox is back and expanding rapidly.

Shortly after announcing the launch of MaxBox Digital Retail Ltd., a rebranding of MaxBox’s original home, Felix Corp., the new company is showing signs of life thanks to two deals that will bring a minimum of 2,000 MaxBox kiosks to Ireland and Australia.

MaxBox closed the Ireland deal last week at the ATEi/ICE trade show in London. Ireland-based Cyberhut Ltd., a provider of automated Internet terminals to the retail sector, signed a three-year contract to distribute a minimum of 1,000 MaxBox digital retail kiosks across northern and southern Ireland. MaxBox also plans to announce a similar deal to release another 1,000 kiosks in Australia, said Andy Egan, chairman and chief executive officer of MaxBox Digital Retail, in a phone interview.

These announcements come just a month after Egan’s resignation from Felix Corp. over business differences with the company’s board chairman. However, Egan said in reality he was pushed out and eventually fired. He attributes his downfall at Felix to the chairman’s impatience with the MaxBox’s rollout.

“He wanted to do something that was more quickly and the MaxBox has always been something that has come out more slowly,” Egan said. “Finally, they weren’t supportive anymore, which I thought was ridiculous.”

Thanks to mortgaging his home, car and a few other personal items, Egan, the founder of Felix Corp., bought back the trading arm of the company from its administrators on Jan. 11.

“I think I personally have more in the kiosk industry now than anyone else in the world,” he said only half-jokingly.

One stumbling block to taking back the MaxBox portion of Felix was that the company’s administrators had already begun to yank the already deployed MaxBox kiosks. However, Egan said some of the location’s owners refused to give up their machines. As for the ones that did get removed, the company is working to get those back in place.

MaxBox has also renewed talks with KIOSK Information Systems to install MaxBox software to new and existing kiosks in the United States.

Egan said his goal in obtaining the MaxBox property again was to finish what he started. Though he said the rollout will probably continue at a slow pace for now, he expects that once a big name retailer comes on board, the number of kiosks in deployment will increase rapidly.

“I think it will still come slow for us,” he said. “But I think 2008 is the year we will get some traction.”

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Over 875 Million Consumers Have Shopped Online – the Number of Internet Shoppers up 40pct in Two Years

Posted by | Jan 28, 2008 | |

More than 85 percent of the world’s online population has used the Internet to make a purchase — increasing the market for online shopping by 40 percent in the past two years — according to the latest Nielsen Global Online Survey on Internet shopping habits. Globally, more than half of Internet users have made at least one purchase online in the past month, according to Nielsen.
Among Internet users, the highest percentage shopping online is found in South Korea, where 99 percent of those with Internet access have used it to shop, followed by the UK (97pct), Germany (97pct), Japan (97pct) with the U.S. eighth, at 94 percent. Additionally, in South Korea, 79 percent of these Internet users have shopped in the past month, followed by the UK (76pct) and Switzerland (67pct) with the U.S. at 57 percent.
Globally, the most popular and purchased items over the Internet are Books (41pct purchased in the past three months), Clothing/Accessories/Shoes (36pct), Videos / DVDs / Games (24pct), Airline Tickets (24pct) and Electronic Equipment (23pct).
Credit cards are by far the most common method of payment for online purchases — 60 percent of global online consumers used their credit card for a recent online purchase, while one in four online consumers chose PayPal. Of those paying with a credit card, more than half (53pct) used Visa.
According to Nielsen, online shoppers tend to stick to the shopping sites they are familiar with, with 60 percent saying they buy mostly from the same site. “This shows the importance of capturing the tens of millions of new online shoppers as they make their first purchases on the Internet. If shopping sites can capture them early, and create a positive shopping experience, they will likely capture their loyalty and their money,” said Paul.

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