Amtrak Express parcels is offering a two-man delivery service for retailers which need to deliver popular items such as plasma and LCD TVs, as well as other electrical goods and home appliances.
Service options include next day or evening, and a special service for fragile items with a “shock watch” to ensure careful handling and additional peace of mind.
Tesco has delivered a warning shot to Royal Mail by handing rival DHL Global Mail a major tranche of its Clubcard direct mail business, as part of a trial.
Although the Clubcard account is not huge in terms of mail volumes – the retailer mails its 12 million members every three months and sends a raft of customer magazines – it is a prestigious brief, forming the backbone of the retailer’s marketing strategy. A Tesco spokeswoman confirmed the appointment, but refused to comment on any expansion of the DHL trials.
Swedish national post office Posten AB plans to close down 26 post offices in the first quarter of 2006, it was reported on January 19, 2006. The closures are part of an ongoing restructuring of Posten’s operations, which will be completed by April 1, 2006. The move will affect 15 employees but the company will try to avoid layoffs. Under the reorganisation, the company will convert some 360 post centres across Sweden into corporate service centres as of April 1, 2006. Posten’s private clients will be redirected to its representative offices.
Read MoreThe first thing Alex Batchelor did when he joined Royal Mail as marketing director last September was to accompany postmen on their rounds.
“He wanted to understand the business from the bottom up,” says Neil Jones, MD of Royal Mail’s media buyer Carat.
It takes little stretch of the imagination to think of the genial Batchelor mucking in with Royal Mail postmen. “Very lively, perceptive, funny, with a brain the size of a planet,” is how former colleague Graham Hales, executive director at Interbrand, describes him.
Batchelor joined Royal Mail at an interesting juncture in its 350-year history. Since 1 January, the postal services market has been opened fully to competition, and Royal Mail is fighting to retain its place as the market’s biggest player. Batchelor, the former executive director of worldwide brand at Orange and before that joint MD at Interbrand, was hired for his commercial marketing nous.
Read MoreThe DMA has recruited Alex Walsh, who handled Royal Mail’s relationships with mailing houses and trade associations, as head of postal affairs. While Walsh has already started work, the DMA is still looking for candidates for the more senior role of director of media channel development, to whom Walsh will report.
The two roles were created to replace the single role of director of industry development and postal affairs, left vacant when David Robottom left in October to set up his own consultancy. The division recognised the increased importance of channels other than mail in the industry.
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