Tag: Europe

Mediaservis: leading challenger to Czech Post

Posted by | Aug 27, 2007 | |

With the postal service market set to open up, Mediaservis is positioning itself to wrap up a bigger chunk of the mail delivery market. And more than just junk mail is at stake.

The Czech postal services market is the most open and developed within the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region, yet rivals of traditional public operators are awaiting full liberalization of the European Union postal market, says Jaroslav Aujezdský, CEO of Mediaservis, an alternative competitor to domestic state-run post office Èeská pošta (ÈP).

Mediaservis is closely monitoring the liberalization process and will be prepared to meet all the conditions when the market is fully liberalized, and be able to provide delivery of mail under 50 grams, or under Kè 18 (EUR 0.65) in the Czech Republic, Aujezdský said.

Currently, Mediaservis has about a 20 percent market share of approximately 1 billion addressed mail items including letters, direct mail, newspapers and magazines sent every year. “We want to enter the segment of delivery of letters under 50 grams, which represents about 65 percent of all the letters that we cannot deliver at the moment although we are capable of doing it,” Aujezdský said. The 65 percent represents mainly the business-to-business (B2B) and the business-to-customer (B2C) market. Some 90 percent of European mail is from businesses, and this is where most new rivals are likely to target new lower-priced services, according to the European
Commission (EC).

Mediaservis was established in 1999 with the aim of providing a morning delivery service mainly for publishing houses. At that time the only operator ÈP offered late morning delivery of periodicals on weekdays, and no service on Saturdays.

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TNT to freeze wages of staffers for the next 2.5 years

Posted by | Aug 27, 2007 | |

Mail and package distributor TNT NV is to freeze wages for all staff for 2.5 years, and is also planning to have staff partly pay pension premium fees, news agency ANP reported late yesterday.

TNT’s management in the company’s internal magazine said that it will enter talks with labor unions concerning the plans.

The move is seen as necessary by the management due to fierce competition in the Dutch market, while TNT’s labor costs are higher than those of its competitors.

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TNT calls for 30 month pay freeze

Posted by | Aug 27, 2007 | |

TNT wants staff to agree to a 2.5 year pay freeze and to make their own payments into the company pension scheme, according to the postal group’s starting position for the latest round of pay talks.

Union Abvakabo describes the proposals as ‘dramatic’, saying the plans would cost workers hundreds of euros a year. Abvakabo wants a 3 pct rise per year.

TNT says the pay freeze is necessary to allow the company to compete with new players on the delivery market, which do not have proper salaried staff.

The company announced earlier this year that it plans to cut 6,500 jobs – a figure which could mount to 11,000 if workers do not agree to a slimmed-down pay and conditions package.

Negotiations on the new pay deal start on September 17.

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Strong mid-year results for Posten

Posted by | Aug 27, 2007 | |

increased by 15 pct, totaling just over SEK 15 billion. At the same time, our operating earnings improved by a full 30 percent. This is evidence of our strength, and shows that we have succeeded in the transition to our new operational structure without losing momentum. Posten has been able to combine an increased level of specialization with its reliable delivery quality and unique ability to reach all of Sweden’s households and companies each workday. Not only has this enabled us to increase sales for our existing customers, but we have also competed and won valuable contracts with new customers.

The projects and ongoing rationalization activities that Posten is conducting allows us to present a broader and more competitive portfolio of communication and logistics services. Proof of our ability to streamline operations lies in the fact that every quarter has shown a measurable increase in productivity since the beginning of 2003.

Competition is increasing for all our operations. The Swedish postal market has been completely deregulated since 1993. Now it will be very interesting to follow the upcoming decision-making process for a fully deregulated EU postal market. This will bring interesting development opportunities for Posten, thanks in part to Stralfors’ platform in Europe. The Swedish Parliament’s decision on June 14th has been an important milestone. The decision means that Posten’s obligation to provide essential financial transaction services through the Cashier Service will cease as of January 1, 2009. This welcome decision eliminates the uncertainty that has surrounded the future of the Cashier Service within Posten.

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Post Danmark H1 profits slump as revenues stagnate

Posted by | Aug 27, 2007 | |

Post Danmark saw its profits slump significantly in the first half of 2007 due to stagnating revenues and higher costs. It continues to expect a drop in full-year profits.

The partly-privatised postal operator achieved a net profit of DKK 355 million (EUR 47.7 million) in January-June 2007 compared to DKK 665 million (EUR 88 million) in the same period the year before. The operating profit dropped by 41pct to DKK 436 million (EUR 58 million) against DKK 741 million (EUR 99.57 million) the year before.

“The profit performance was clearly marked by stagnant revenue mainly due to the implementation of changes from the beginning of this year in relation to the subsidy for the distribution of dailies etc. as a result of which it is now paid directly to the media. A range of publishers have therefore decided to develop their own distribution network or to choose other distributors. In addition, revenue dropped for letters, magazine mail and unaddressed mail,” said Helge Israelsen, CEO, Post Danmark.

The domestic parcels business increased revenue, however, to DKK 861 million from DKK 655 million one year earlier. But its H1 operating loss widened to DKK 104 million from DKK 37 million, mostly due to higher transport costs.

Post Danmark’s operating costs also grew following the acquisition of Transportgruppen, new collective agreements in the spring, higher transport costs and the impact of a three-year voluntary early retirement program at Belgian Post, in which it holds a minority stake. Post Danmark said it is pursuing a number of initiatives in relation to production, transport structure and distribution to generate cost savings.

1 DKK = 0.0912605 GBP

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