ForteXport Struggles
Fortec’s ForteXport European service, launched in July 2005, is so far attracting little freight.
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UK Post Office: Life in the old dog yet
The Post Office has been forced to broaden its horizons in recent years. Having branched out of its traditional sector, it now puts as much energy into competing against the likes of Barclays and BT as it does into sorting and delivering mail. Following its expansion into travel and financial services, the Post Office is looking to become a major player in the telecoms sector, launching its own directory enquiries service earlier this month to complement its fixed-line offering Homephone. Post Office head of marketing Simon Carter said last week that further product launches, which could include mobile phone, broadband or voice over internet protocol services, could follow. The Post Office has the largest retail network in Europe with 14,500 branches and 28 million customers a week. But the business is still losing more than GBP100m a year, exacerbated by the fact that pensions and child benefits are now paid directly into bank accounts. In the past, the transactions accounted for 40% of Post Office revenue. Although last week Post Office parent company Royal Mail was handed a record GBP11.7m fine for 14.6 million items that were lost or stolen last year, it is estimated that now just 25% of the Post Office’s business is handling mail. The rest is made up of travel products, government services, financial services and telecoms.
Read MoreFortis, An Post venture may see spend of EUR400m
Fortis and An Post could each need to spend up to €200 million on their banking joint venture over the next few years, analysts suggested yesterday. It emerged on Tuesday night that An Post had chosen to enter into exclusive talks with the Belgian/Dutch banking group about setting up a new banking business in the Republic. Neither party would comment on the details of the planned joint venture yesterday, aside from confirming that talks would begin soon and expressing optimism at the development. The move caught the attention of analysts however, with Rabo Securities choosing to lift Fortis’s price target on the basis of continued growth at the group. Rabo identified the Republic as an attractive market for life insurance in particular and said the link with An Post could require an investment of EUR100-EUR200 million on both sides over several years. Other analysts wondered if Fortis could use the deal to test the Irish market with a view to taking over one of the domestic banking players in years to come.
Read MoreSky stretches The Print Factory deal five years
The Print Factory’s (TPF) primary source print management contract with Sky has been extended for five years. The deal is estimated to be worth up to £100m. It comes after a two-year deal, signed in November, worth more than £5m, for the printing of Sky’s transactional mail. The firms started working together in 2003. Last week Northampton-based TPF opened a 2,800m2 site in Brentford, west London, next to Sky’s headquarters.
Read MoreCorreios de Portugal gains tender in Serbia
Portuguese postal operator CTT – Correios de Portugal has won the international tender launched by Serbia for the development of a strategy for the improvement of the country’s postal services, Portuguese business daily Diario Economico reported on February 15, 2006. Under the terms of the tender CTT will examine the weak points of the postal services in Serbia. The process will be carried out by Portuguese specialists and will cost 60,000 euro (UD71,000). On the basis of the gathered information, CTT will elaborate the plan for the improvement, whose implementation will cost 200,000 euro (UD238,000).
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