Tag: Germany

Frank Appel to replace Klaus Zumwinkel at Deutsche Post in 2008

Posted by | May 8, 2007 | |

Klaus Zumwinkel, CEO of German postal services group Deutsche Post AG, is likely to be replaced by Frank Appel, after Zumwinkel’s contract expires at the end of 2008, German daily Handelsblatt reported on May 8, 2007.

Frank Appel, who is currently responsible for the Global Corporate Services division, will also take over mail services outside Germany, Zumwinkel said at the company’s general shareholders’ meeting. Appel has worked closely together with Deutsche Post’s top management for almost seven years, and is expected to boost further the change in the regulatory and political fields, Zumwinkel added.

A spokesperson of Deutsche Post did not comment on speculations that Appel’s responsibilities would be extended further.

Appel, who used to be in charge of the important logistics division, will engage in political talks about the future of Deutsche Post’s mail services monopoly, which, according to current plans of the German government, has to be revoked at the end of 2007. The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) has raised objections against the planned reform.

Juergen Gerdes, 42, will be in charge of mail services in Germany, Zumwinkel said. The mail communication services division has so far been managed by Hans-Dieter Petram, 64, who will retire as of June 30, 2007.

It remains unclear when Deutsche Post will lose its monopoly over letters weighing up to 50 grams in Germany. Vice Chancellor Franz Muentefering and the Minister of Finance, Peer Steinbrueck, have set as target date January 1, 2008. While debates in the German parliament are still going on, Zumwinkel has again raised demands for liberalisation of EU accords. According to the EU plans, the remaining monopolies in EU member states must be revoked in 2009.

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Deutsche Telekom chairman under pressure to leave

Posted by | May 3, 2007 | |

Klaus Zumwinkel, chairman of Deutsche Telekom is under pressure from other board members to leave his non-executive post when his contract ends in May 2008, a German newspaper said on Thrusday.

Several supervisory board members had questioned whether Zumwinkel, who is also chief executive of mail and logistics group Deutsche Post and non-executive chairman of Deutsche Postbank could devote enough time to Deutsche Telekom, the Financial Times Deutschland said.

Deutsche Telecom faces strikes over plans to move some 50,000 staff into lower-paying service units as it tries to cut costs in the face of hefty fixed-line subscriber losses.

Citing people familiar with the situation, the paper said Zumwinkel wanted to delay any decision on his future at Deutsche Telekom until later in the year.
The paper said that private equity firm Blackstone, which holds a 4.4 percent stake in Deutsche Telekom, had in December pushed for the resignation of Zumwinkel, citing a possible conflict of interest and arguing that Zumwinkel was unable to devote sufficient attention to Deutsche Telekom.

But the German government, which still owns 31 percent of Deutsche Telekom, had rejected the complaint, the paper said.

No one at Deutsche Telekom, which holds its annual shareholder meeting on Thursday, was not immediately available for comment. Deutsche Post declined to comment.

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Deutsche Post rules out takeovers

Posted by | May 2, 2007 | |

Deutsche Post has announced that it intends to focus on organic growth and has ruled out investing in other postal service companies outside Germany. This counters reports that the company was interested in acquiring Israeli postal service company Israel Postal Company. It is also said that representatives for Japanese and Chinese postal services could be in discussion with Deutsche Post.

However, the integration of newly acquired business in the express business has been slower than expected. The impending liberalisation of the European postal market threatens to entail a drop in figures for Deutsche Post.

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Quality of service: Awards for Belarus, Germany and Hungary

Posted by | May 1, 2007 | |

The postal operators of Belarus, Germany and Hungary were today awarded for their quality of service management results.

The UPU certification programme, which was adopted in 2003, rewards postal operators that apply quality management procedures in their postal structures, guarantee a particularly high standard in their international mail service, and actively participate in quality improvement programmes.

The programme, which evaluates quality on the basis of values other than speed and regularity, provides a level playing field for all Posts to apply for certification on an equal footing, irrespective of their infrastructures and level of development.

These three countries now join the six that have already won awards (Ukraine, Jordan, Tunisia, Denmark, Eritrea and Switzerland).

According to Mr. Laszló SZIVI, Vice-President of Magyar Posta, this award represents not only “International recognition of the efforts made by its postal enterprise to achieve the standards set by the UPU, but is also an accolade from the postal community to the Hungarian operator for meeting the growing needs of customers and investing in its structures and staff, in order to provide a quality service”. The programme “Presents customers with a very positive brand image of the Post”, asserts Laszló SZIVI, adding, “I urge all postal operators to apply for certification”.

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