Tag: Europe

Post Office Ltd (UK) rules out more closures

Posted by | Jun 10, 2008 | |

The Post Office has moved to stem fears that thousands more branches could be closed on top of the 2,500 scheduled to shut, claiming it has “no plan or desire” to shrink the network further.

The reassurance follows speculation that the Government’s closure plan would need to be extended by cutting another 4,000 post offices. Post Office executives said today they had the funding to maintain branch levels for at least the next three years.

The controversial plan by Royal Mail to close 2,500 branches to save GBP 500,000 a day, will take the network down to 11,500. Until now, further reductions had not been ruled out.

Speaking before the Commons Enterprise committee yesterday, Alan Cook, the Post Office managing director, said: “We must be clear about this. We strongly maintain a desire to keep the network at 11,500 plus.”

He added: “We do have to work within government funding and policy, but we would oppose further plans to shrink the size of the network.”

However, Mr Cook admitted the pledge could only be kept if his company won the government’s post office card account, through which millions of people are paid state benefits.

Ministers have put the card account contract out to tender and are understood to have received rival offers. The National Federation of SubPostmasters has warned that up to 3,000 post offices could be forced to close if the network loses the card account contract. The government is due to make a decision later this summer. Yesterday, Mr Cook said he was confident that the Post Office would win the contract.

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Norway Post buys Swedish transport firm

Posted by | Jun 10, 2008 | |

Norway Post today continued its Nordic expansion with the acquisition of Swedish road haulage company CombiTrans for an undisclosed sum. The deal will strengthen its logistics activities in the region.

CombiTrans, with 105 employees, had operating profits (EBIT) of SEK 50 million (euro 5.4 million) on revenues of SEK 540 million (euro 57.9 million) in 2007. In 2006, it dispatched 16,000 vehicles and 94,000 consignments with a freight haulage weight of 348,000 tonnes.

The company, set up in 1986, specialises in international road haulage services for single consignments, as well as full and part loads. It covers the whole of Europe, with particular focus on Greece, Turkey, the Balkans, and the rest of Eastern Europe, as well as Central Asia and the Middle East. It has offices and terminals in the Swedish towns of Varberg, Malmö, Ystad and Jönköping, as well as in Greece.

Norway Post has expanded strongly in the Nordic region in recent years in order to reduce dependency on the mail market, diversify into growth sectors such as international transportation and logistics, and counter the expansion of multinationals in the region. It has invested over euro 636 million on acquisitions, and aims to double revenues from outside Norway to nearly 50% of group revenues by 2011.

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Correos signs up a further 2,000 intermittent permanent workers

Posted by | Jun 10, 2008 | |

Correos is going to contract around 2,000 workers as intermittent permanent employees, instead of signing temporary contracts as it did up until the last collective agreement, to cover its employment requirements in the summer campaign for deliveries on foot and by motorcycle and sorting. The postal operator has once again decided on this type of contract that has enabled the creation of stable, high-quality employment and contributed to an increase in the quality of the services it offers citizens and businesses.
Last year, more than 3,000 workers joined Correos as intermittent permanent employees, 50 pct of which have become permanent employees in the Public Company within its Permanent Transfer Selection Process, the postal company’s horizontal mobility and promotion system.
In this way, CORREOS promotes a clear strategy of fostering stable, high-quality employment, significantly reducing job insecurity. Since November 2006, it has taken on nearly 10,400 permanent workers to carry out delivery tasks in urban and rural sorting offices, and customer services in the post offices. These will now be joined by another 2,000 workers, hired as intermittent permanent employees to cover the structural personnel requirements that occur every year during holiday or peak activity periods, such as the summer and Christmas campaigns.
Correos has been applying this new company recruitment system, which is more agile, dynamic and decentralised, since the 2nd Collective Agreement and General Employment Agreement, signed on 19 June 2006.
This new system contributes towards improving the quality of the service given to customers and users, as the workers gain experience in their jobs and work areas thanks to their stable labour relationship with the postal company.

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TNT offers Innight services in the Nordics

Posted by | Jun 10, 2008 | |

TNT is offering Innight distribution in the Nordic region following the launch of dedicated flights between Brussels and several regional airports at the start of June.

The express operator has started up a route between Brussels, Jönköping (southern Sweden) and Helsinki operated with a BAe 146, and two feeder routes operated with Cessnas linking Oslo and Billund (Denmark) to Jönköping.

Tony Jakobsen, Regional General Manager TNT Northern Europe, said TNT was the only international express operator offering such innight distribution services on a scheduled basis.

Stephen Naylor, managing director of TNT Sweden, added that Jönköping was ideally located to act as a hub for innight shipments from Central Europe heading for Nordic destinations. Key customers include the automotive and agricultural sectors.

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Deutsche Postbank set for sale (GER)

Posted by | Jun 9, 2008 | |

Deutsche Post is ready to sell Postbank and is expected to begin a formal sales process for the euro 10bn (USD 15.7bn) business within days, insiders say.

The move will herald a summer of dealmaking in Germany’s banking sector after Citigroup received a number of non-binding offers last week for its German retail business at the first stage.

International and domestic banks have expressed interest in both Postbank and the Citigroup operation, which are among the largest retail businesses in the fragmented banking sector.

A person with knowledge of Deutsche Post said “final discussions” were imminent about the future of Postbank

Deutsche Post has already had informal approaches since its former chief executive hinted that Postbank could be sold. Frank Appel, Deutsche Post’s new chief executive, has confirmed that Postbank should play an active role in banking consolidation and admitted his shareholders would reject further involvement in banking.

The postal and logistics group owns 50 per cent plus one share of Postbank, the former post office savings bank that is separately listed since an initial public offering in 2004.

Most analysts expect Postbank will be bought by a German lender, with Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, the two largest domestic banks, among those to have shown interest.

Allianz, the insurer, has also considered a bid for Postbank. One option jointly discussed by Commerzbank and Allianz is for a three way tie-up involving Commerzbank, Postbank and Dresdner Bank, Allianz’s banking subsidiary. However, bankers believe such a deal would be complex.

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