Tag: Europe

Fortec welcomes Prospect Commercials Ltd to the network

Posted by | Apr 12, 2007 | |

The company covers 85 pct of the Kent postcode area, including Maidstone, Chatham and Dover, with a staff of 25 and a fleet of 20 vans, eight 7.5 tonnes and three 18 tonnes vehicles.

The company has been operating for seven years, and has been a member of the Fortec network for two months.

The company’s original focus was on servicing the TNT operation in Kent, but after a strategic review Prospect Commercials made the decision to join a pallet network and chose the Fortec Pallet network.

Gary Monks, Director, Prospect Commercials commented on the new relationship: “After making the decision to become part of the Network, we had an intensive two weeks in which to get everything prepared, including the introduction of the Fortec systems, which thankfully are extremely user-friendly.

“In the brief two months since becoming a licensee, we have already formed a strong relationship. We can really notice things coming together – everyone at Prospect Commercials can see our company growing and we are very excited by the opportunities which the Fortec network provides.

“For example thanks to the Fortec sales team identifying new leads, we have added nine major new customers to our books in the last two weeks!

“Our experience has been very positive – nothing seems too much effort for the team at Fortec and their USP matches ours; providing a quality, customer orientated service and willing to go the extra mile when necessary. We are particularly interested in the opportunities provided by the Fortec International product which offers a daily departure service into Europe at competitive rates. I am sure this is going to prove very popular with our customers.

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La Poste profits rise 41%

Posted by | Apr 12, 2007 | |

The French postal service La Poste reported a 41.6% net profit increase that saw net profit increase to EUR 789 million in 2006, from EUR 557 million the year before. The increase was attributed to strong express and parcels growth.
La Poste remained optimistic about the future and said it believed operating margins would continue to rise, to 5.8% for 2007. This positive outlook was partly due to reforms to its pension finances which had generated good results.

The company’s international turnover climbed to over EUR 3 billion (15.2% of overall revenues) in 2006. Express revenues rose 15.7% to EUR 2.93 billion with strong growth in assets in Eastern Europe, Germany and the UK making significant contributions.

External investment reached over EUR 500 million was invested externally and resulted in the acquisition of Exapaq, Orsid and 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.

Internal investment increased by 29% to EUR 1.136 billion. Work began on 20 hubs across France and 2006 saw the four new mail hubs open for business.
Electronic commerce assisted the reported parcels growth of 7.2% representing EUR 1.24 billion. The number of tracked parcels increased to 75% of the total compared to 60% in 2005. Two-day, on-time delivery reached 91%, 2% up on 2005.
La Poste mail revenues rose by a much smaller margin than those registered the previous year. Revenues in 2006 were up just 0.5%, to EUR 11.3 billion, when compared to a revenue gain of 3.4% in 2005.

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.

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Dutch minister rejects tighter post oversight

Posted by | Apr 12, 2007 | |

A Dutch minister rejected calls on Thursday for tighter supervision of dominant Dutch mail company TNT NV when the post market is fully opened to competition next year.

Frank Heemskerk, responsible within the government for postal liberalisation, acknowledged that supervision was necessary to ensure that all post companies had a fair chance to compete, but said the new law would provide regulators with adequate powers.
Politicians both from the left and the right had questioned whether OPTA and anti-trust authority NMa had sufficient means to deal with complaints after TNT loses its monopoly on letters of up to 50 grammes, almost half of the 2-billion-euro Dutch mail market.
Heemskerk said the agencies’ staffing would be reviewed as part of the budget process later this year.
He added that the ministry would fine-tune the postal law to avoid TNT granting its budget unit, Netwerk VSP, better terms than competitors in giving access to its network. TNT’s Dutch mail business is one the country’s biggest employers with about 59,000 people, but its competitors, privately held Sandd and Deutsche Post’s Selekt Mail, work with few permanent staff and pay carriers by the number of items delivered.
Heemskerk said the requirement of a labour agreement could pose a barrier to entry, and he noted that Dutch labour laws already offered people who worked on the basis of assignments to sue if they believed that they should have a proper contract.

Heemskerk said he expected to stick to Jan. 1, 2008, as the date for TNT to lose its remaining monopoly even though the law would provide an “emergency break” if for example Germany did not open its market at the same time.

Parliament will vote on the new postal law as early as next week.

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Protest against liberalisation of post

Posted by | Apr 12, 2007 | |

Postal workers gathered in The Hague on Wednesday to protest unfair competition on the postal market. The unions want to prevent developments that could lead to postal workers being paid per item delivered rather than an hourly wage.

TNT Post recently announced that thousands at the company would be made redundant because of the pressure from the competition with new postal companies.

State secretary for economic affairs Frans Heemskerk wants to leave it to the unions to agree on labour conditions with the new postal companies. A majority in Parliament supports this.

Labour party PvdA, Socialist party SP and Green-left GroenLinks support the demands from the unions.

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TNT promises there will be no UK redundancies

Posted by | Apr 12, 2007 | |

TNT has moved quickly to reassure employees that it has no plans for redundancies in the UK after revealing heavy cutbacks in the Netherlands.

TNT Post in The Hague said last week that competition and declining volumes in the Dutch postal market mean it is forced to cut up to 7,000 jobs and freeze wages in an effort to lower costs.

It says the measures will not affect operations in the UK.

TNT Post employs 58,000 people in the Netherlands and processes 16,000 postal items each day, but it is losing mail to competitors and as a result of the switch to online services, including banking and electronic tax-filing.

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