Tag: Czech Republic

Czech Post looking for alternatives in small municipalities

The Ministry of Interior appointed Petr Sedlqcek as new general manager to lead the restructuring of a profitable, yet old-fashioned postal service provider Ceska Posta. Yet, many challenges lie ahead, and at this point not even the new boss can say how ÈP will look in 2013 when the European postal service market will be fully liberalized.

ÈP has four years to transform from an image-dented, state-controlled colossus with a branch network similar to the one shared under the Austro-Hungarian Empire into a modern, flexible and competitive joint-stock company that will be able to survive in a fully liberalized market. “There is a huge amount of work in front of us,” Sedláèek said.

This imperative seems to be ÈP’s current motto. According to ÈP spokesman Ivo Mravinac, ÈP must restructure, improve processes and transfer money earned or saved into a technological upgrade. “We have four years for that. If we don’t do it, by 2013 all our competitors will have systems that will make them less expensive, and we will lose clients. This might even mean the end of Èeská pošta,” he told the Czech financial server Mìšec.cz at the beginning of September 2008.

Now, the Czech Republic has almost 3,400 branches serving some 10 million inhabitants, while Austria, a country of a similar size has some 1,000 physical branches. On the other hand, ÈP employs some 37,000 employees, more than the 35,800 employed by the Romanian postal service provider Poºta Românã (RP), despite the fact that RP serves more than 20 million inhabitants.

The restructuring plans that Sedláèek inherited include possibly closing some 178 branches that are now in the red. “If we don’t do this and we don’t transfer money obtained from savings into a technological upgrade, this might bring the end of ÈP and subsequently we’d assist to the closure of thousands of branches,” Jurek said.