Tag: Europe

Licence expected for An Post/Fortis joint venture

Posted by | Jan 16, 2007 | |

The Financial Regulator is expected to grant a banking licence to the new An Post/Fortis joint venture following approval for the joint venture by the European Commission.

A senior banking source predicted last night that a banking licence would be forthcoming from the Regulator for two reasons.

An Post subsidiaries One Direct and PayPoint are already in successful operation around the country, while Fortis is a leading financial institution in a number of Continental markets.

Former Aer Rianta chief executive Margaret Sweeney has been appointed chief executive of the new An Post/Fortis banking joint venture which will provide a broad range of retail banking services to the Irish market, including daily banking, savings products, insurance, credit cards and mortgages, through the Post Office network.

Application has also been made to the Irish Financial Regulator for a banking licence.

An Post chairperson Margaret McGinley and chief executive Donal Connell congratulated Ms Sweeney on her appointment, describing it as another important milestone in the establishment of the new Irish retail bank.

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Blow to Royal Mail as BT and British Gas defect

Posted by | Jan 16, 2007 | |

Royal Mail suffered a twin blow yesterday after UK companies BT and British Gas switched postal contracts worth around GBP150m to its rival operator, TNT.

BT is the largest bulk mailer in the country, and the contract won yesterday by TNT, part of the Dutch post office, is the biggest since deregulation of the UK postal market in 2004. The BT contract is worth GBP90m over three years, and will involve TNT handling 170 million items a year – mainly bills and statements. No announcement has been made of the British Gas deal, but the contract is thought to worth GBP60m. TNT declined to comment.

The loss of the two huge utilities is a further setback for Royal Mail following the decision by the Department for Work and Pensions to switch a GBP12m contract to another of its privately owned rivals, Business Post, two weeks ago.

The BT contract involves a so-called access agreement, whereby TNT collects the post and trunks it to Royal Mail sorting offices for final delivery. However, TNT is planning to launch its own end-to-end postal service, and is in the final stages of selecting a number of UK cities to conduct trials. It has already signed up a host of blue-chip clients including Virgin Mobile, Sky, Next, Sainsbury’s. HBOS, Lloyds TSB, npow-er and Thames Water.

Nick Wells, chief executive of TNT Post UK, said he aimed to win more business from BT.

Business Post’s letters division, UK Mail, has also picked up contracts from Royal Bank of Scotland, Vodafone and Powergen while DHL, owned by Deustche Post, counts Tesco, John Lewis and Debenhams among its customers.

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Are smaller stamps going to save the planet?

Posted by | Jan 16, 2007 | |

France’s La Poste proudly announces what they consider a major step in environmental friendliness: the “Eco-carnet“.

Up to now, a carnet contained 10 stamps; the new version contains 12 stamps of a smaller size, using the same amount of paper.

La Poste claims a saving of 13% on paper, which is the equivalent of 192 trees per year.

That means that by the time La Poste has saved 192 trees, they have delivered 1.8 billion letters across the country.

Most French post travels by train or aeroplane between major regional distribution centers, from where it travels by lorry to local post offices, before it is delivered by your friendly postman on his moped (in cities) or mini-van (in country towns).

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TNT Post confirms Centrica contract win

Posted by | Jan 16, 2007 | |

TNT Post confirms earlier reports that it has been awarded a contract to handle around 170 million items mail for Centrica, the leading supplier of energy in the United Kingdom. The 2 year contract estimated to be worth over euro 35 million (GBP23 million) annually is another significant milestone for the postal industry.
TNT Post will be handling around 120 million transactional mail items a year and around 50 million direct marketing items. Centrica’s transactional mail is generated at their print and mail centres in Northampton and Manchester. Centrica will predominantly be benefiting from TNT Post’s Premier Service, a two day time definite service for pre-sorted mail with Royal Mail continuing to carry out the final mile delivery to customers’ homes nationwide. The service offers valuable benefits to both Centrica and its customers such as: flexible pick up times, use of tracking systems that enable improved visibility and management and fast and reliable 2 day service.

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Royal Mail close to GBP 3bn funding deal

Posted by | Jan 16, 2007 | |

A multi-billion-pound funding package for the cash-strapped Royal Mail is likely to be paid out next month – eight months after it was agreed with ministers. The trigger for the payment of the GBP3bn deal has been the agreement in principle of a share plan for employees of Royal Mail. The new plan is a compromise between the Royal Mail’s plan for actual shares to be given to staff and a more straightforward profit-sharing scheme advocated by the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU).
Under the deal, Royal Mail workers are likely to be issued with “phantom shares” which will track the value of the business and allow staff to share in its value. The hope is that approximately 200,000 Royal Mail workers could be left with phantom shares worth GBP5,000 after five years.
The compromise emerged after months of negotiations between Allan Leighton, Royal Mail’s chairman, and Alastair Darling, the DTI Secretary. Sources close to the talks insisted that no deal was agreed. One said: “There is a lot still to do to agree, but it is a way forward.” Other sources said that Royal Mail would be happy with a deal which gives staff about GBP5,000 worth of shares in the company.

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