Tag: Europe

Sunday & Bank Holiday Collections

Posted by | Aug 1, 2007 | |

Postwatch has recently given its agreement to an application by Royal Mail to stop collecting mail on Sundays and Bank Holidays.

Royal Mail state that collections take place from only 18,000 of the 115,000 postboxes and that only a very small amount of the usual mail flows are posted on a Sunday. Royal Mail have stated that the cost of providing the service, which includes opening mail centers to sort the post on a Sunday, is significant and not proportionate to the number of people requiring the service. A link to Royal Mail’s application can be found here:

Postwatch undertake a survey of customers views on this issue, which it did in May this year. Over two thirds of respondents said they ‘seldomly or neve’ put something in the post for collection on a Sunday which required delivery on a Monday.

Royal Mail now needs to apply to Postcomm, the regulator, for formal approval. If approved, Royal Mail has asked that collections stop on 30 September. Postboxes will of course still be able to receive mail on a Sunday, but it will not be collected until Monday (or the next working day in the case of Bank Holidays).

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Austrian Post acquires 100% shareholding of German direct marketing service provider meiller direct GmbH

Posted by | Jul 31, 2007 | |

Following the signing of the agreement and the approval granted by the responsible anti-trust authorities, Austrian Post announces the formal closing of the transaction effective July 31, 2007, enabling it to acquire a 100% shareholding in meiller direct GmbH. The initial consolidation of meiller direct takes place at the formal closing date.

meiller is one of the largest direct marketing service providers in Europe. The services provided range from the production of documents and mailings, dialogue services (e.g. CRM, address management and response management), as well as the further processing and finishing of dialogue media (e.g. binding and polywrapping of catalogues). meiller operates production facilities in Schwandorf (Germany) and Nyrany (Czech Republic), and is also represented with sales offices in several Western and Central European markets. Last year, meiller produced a total of 685m documents, of which 175m were designed for international delivery. Starting with its initial business focus on the mail-order business, meiller has succeeded in attracting top customers from other branches in recent years (e.g. Daimler Chrysler, E-on/IS).

In particular, meiller will be able to provide considerable support to the subsidiaries recently acquired by Austrian Post in the core countries of Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Croatia, to assist them in more effectively penetrating these markets. At the same time, the transaction opens up significant new sales potential for meiller in the Central and Eastern European region.

In the year 2006, meiller achieved revenues of approximately EUR 112m (2006 business year: October 2005 – September 2006), employing a total of 1,180 people. The enterprise value of the company as at March 31, 2007 was determined to be EUR 60.5m. It was agreed by the parties to the agreement that the purchase price (enterprise value less net financial liabilities) would not be disclosed.

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Migrant workers prompt postal boom

Posted by | Jul 31, 2007 | |

The large number of migrants from Lithuania working overseas are responsible for a boom in the country’s postal service, Lietuvos Paštas has confirmed.

Since Lithuania became a member of the European Union, the amount of international letters, postcards, and small parcels has grown hugely, with the most traffic coming from Great Britain, Ireland and Spain, where the majority of Lithuanian currently live and work.

By the end of 2006 the amount of outgoing mail correspondence to Great Britain had increased by more than 220 percent and stood at 96.13 tons per year, accounting for more than a quarter of outgoing correspondence, and the amount of incoming mail had improved by 25 percent to 60.1 tons per year.

Last year, the volume of outgoing parcels to Ireland had increased by 39 percent to 23.9 percent, the amount of incoming parcels from Ireland had gone up by 18 percent to 12.9 tons.

Communication with Lithuanians in Spain is livelier than ever, as well. In 2006, the amount of mail sent from Spain to Lithuania was as much as 23 times greater than in 2004 (6.6 tons), and the volume of outgoing correspondence to Spain had risen by 26.1 percent to 5.86 tons.

In 2006, the Lithuanian post office delivered 5.9 million items or 457.25 tons of foreign mail to addresses in Lithuania, and the amount of outgoing mail from Lithuania stood at 4.73 million items or 369.1 tons.

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Statement – Update On Further Strike Action By The Communication Workers Union

Posted by | Jul 31, 2007 | |

Royal Mail said last Thursday that payroll figures show that 80 per cent of our people are working as normal. Collections and deliveries are taking place as usual throughout the UK.

12 mail centres – the large sites where mail is processed before being sent to delivery offices – are working normally throughout today, including sites in Belfast, Southend, Liverpool, Carlisle, Peterborough, Glasgow, Hull, Aberdeen, Gloucester, Portsmouth, Crewe and Gatwick. Large numbers of colleagues have also reported to work at the remaining 59 centres and are working alongside management volunteers. No mail centres are expected to be closed.

The action last week was not on a national basis but involves strikes at different Royal Mail sites at different times.

The union’s publicly stated aim of causing maximum damage to Royal Mail, and therefore its customers, is completely at odds with its claim to support the postal service. Strike action will inevitably drive customers away from Royal Mail to rival operators and to the internet.

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Correos and Cartes Lleida sign first agreement to access the postal network

Posted by | Jul 31, 2007 | |

Correos and Cartes Lleida have signed the first agreement to access the public postal network. Confirmation of the agreement was announced on Tuesday 31st July. Cartes Lleida will start to operate with Correos from 1st January 2008.

At present, a number of postal operators are still in negotiations with Correos. The most significant of these, (by size and market share) is Unipost.
By law private operators can offer services to delivery items in a national level using the Correos infrastructure (sorting, transport and delivery services).

The law also specifies that the private operators can use the Correos network like a private client with respective payment to Correos for its services. A single private operator represents a minimum of 350,000 mails per year.

The government expects that private operator will transfer the discounts to final consumers.

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