Tag: Europe

La Poste sees net profits rise 41%

Posted by | Apr 13, 2007 | |

French public postal operator La Poste reported a 41.6% leap in net profits to EUR 789 million in 2006, from EUR 557 million the year before, on the back of strong growth in express and parcels.

Pre-tax profit rose 22% to EUR 949 million, from EUR 777 million in 2005, as revenues grew 4.3% to EUR 20.1 billion from EUR 19.27 billion the year before. Operating margin was up 0.7% to 4.7% in 2006, higher than the 3.5% forecast.

“2006 was notable for a strong rebound in international operations, mainly express but also financial services and mail,” the group said in a statement. “And it was the year of unprecedented internal investment in support of the modernisation efforts implemented by each of the group’s sectors.”

La Poste said it was confident operating margin would continue to rise, to 5.8% for 2007, as reforms to its pension finances impacted positively for the first time this year.

“Activity in the first months of the year (2007) is globally in line with the forecasts and the group is confident in its capacity to attain its objective for operating margin,” La Poste said.

International turnover grew to over EUR 3 billion (15.2% of overall revenues) in 2006. Express revenues were up 15.7% to EUR 2.93 billion due in part to strong growth again in eastern Europe, Germany and the UK.

Parcel turnover rose 7.2% to EUR 1.24 billion as the number of tracked parcels increased to 75% of the total compared to 60% in 2005 and traffic growth was stimulated by the introduction of electronic commerce. Two-day, on-time delivery reached 91%, 2% up on 2005.

Mail revenues were up just 0.5%, though, to EUR 11.3 billion, compared to the 3.4% growth in 2005, which was achieved mainly through price rises. The first year of Banque Postale’s activities – separated from La Poste on 1 January 2006 – saw it increase revenues by 6.3% to EUR 4.58 billion.

Net debt grew 37% to almost EUR 6 billion at the end of 2006, compared to EUR 3.78 billion on 31 December 2005, mainly due to a one-off, EUR 2 billion pension fund payment to the state.

Internal investment was up 29% to EUR 1.136 billion as modernisation work forged ahead. Four new mail hubs opened and work began on 20 others across France, EUR 200 million was spent on renovating parcel depots and sorting centres, and over 1,000 post offices were made over.

External investment reached over EUR 500 million through the acquisition of B2B small parcel firm Exapaq, document management specialist Orsid and asset manager Sogéposte (now part of Banque Postale). Total investment by the group thus increased by 70% to a record EUR 1.64 billion, from EUR 958 million in 2005.

The group said the improved profitability would allow it to continue to increase internal investment and reduce its debt ratio in 2007.

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Dutch Parliament delays decision on mail market deregulation

Posted by | Apr 13, 2007 | |

The Dutch parliament decided to postpone its decision on the deregulation of the Dutch mail market until next week, but during its debate on the topic it became clear that a large majority will support the plan to liberalize the market as from Jan. 1, 2008.

The parliament discussed a proposal by Frank Heemskerk, Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, to liberalize the Dutch mail market, which until now is dominated by TNT NV. A large majority seems willing to support the plan, although members of the parliament asked for a bit more time to come to a final decision.

There were several amendments on the proposal and they have to be discussed first. TNT, which has a monopoly in The Netherlands on mail services for all letters up to 50 grams, is against an opening of the Dutch market from the beginning of 2008 because it fears that other European countries will likely wait longer to do so.

The German parliament has already agreed on deregulation of its domestic postal market. Various German government officials, however, have expressed doubts whether the country should pursue the plans, because the French government has said it doesn’t want to open up its postal market before 2012.

There is no fixed date by which E.U. member states need to have fully deregulated their postal markets. E.U. Internal Market and Services commissioner Charlie McGreevy proposed in October last year to open up the entire European Union market by Jan. 1, 2009, but this was met with protests from many member states and a formal decision has yet to be made.

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New Royal Mail service to unite dormant account holders with savings

Posted by | Apr 13, 2007 | |

A new service developed by Royal Mail could help banks trace customers with dormant savings accounts.

A 60 per cent success rate is being claimed by the postal service for a technique which can locate account holders who have moved home but have neglected to inform their banks.

Royal Mail uses information gathered over the last 16 years from its Mail Redirection service to ascertain the whereabouts of lost customers, and the method has already completed a successful trial.

The announcement comes soon after the Commission of Unclaimed Assets confirmed it was to redouble its efforts to unite dormant account holders with their money.

“People moving home without telling their financial provider is one of the key reasons for an account or investment becoming dormant and our unique information on people who have moved home over the past 16 years helps us identify them,” said Leonora Corden, Royal Mail’s head of market development.

It is estimated that GBP15 billion is currently deposited in dormant bank accounts in the UK.

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Computerised Posties

Posted by | Apr 13, 2007 | |

The UK’s postmen and postwomen are having their rounds assessed – by a computer program called ‘Georoute’.

Georoute is routing software, designed to maximise efficiency of collection and delivery arrangements for postal operators. Royal Mail is using Georoute to help improve efficiency by ensuring that routes are well planned.

There are potential problems however. Some postal workers say that it will be used as a method of timing walks without taking into account varying weather conditions and indeed the working speed of any particular postie, let alone extras like recorded or special delivery items which take extra time. Some even claim that it can be as much as an hour out.

To be fair, Georoute isn’t human. It can only work with the information supplied to it and since it doesn’t actually do deliveries itself, it does lack that all imprtant human factor. One wonders if the expence of introducing it will make sufficient savings to make it worthwhile but clearly its difficult to allocate or change existing postal walks purely on a paper map.

Computers are extraordinarily good at working out complex calculations that would tax even Einstein but to be really accurate, the software needs set figures to work from. Variables can only create ‘averages’ at best. The concern for postal workers is that it will be used to create set time frames in which they are expected to carry out their duties, that doesn’t take into account the variables, and could mean they are not paid fairly.

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