Tag: Mail Services

DHL Restructuring – Wheels in Motion But Likely to Take Some Time

Posted by | Mar 5, 2008 | |

RESTRUCTURING IN THE U.S. Following the recent USD 784M write down related to its Americas Express business, 600 recently announced layoffs in the U.S., and change in DPWN’s CEO, several European and U.S. newspapers have reported that DHL could announce either the sale or restructuring of its U.S. business at its parent DPWN’s analysts meeting in Bonn on March 6th.

BACKGROUND ON DHL’S PROBLEMS IN THE U.S. DHL bought Airborne in late 2003 and over the next few years merged its existing U.S. import/export business in with Airborne’s predominantly domestic express business. However, DP has never been able to realize its expected cost synergies and has reported an estimated USD 2.8B in losses in North America over the past 4 years.

WHAT ARE DHL’S OPTIONS? For anti-trust reasons we don’t believe that either UPS or FDX could buy DHL’s N.A. assets or complete book of business. More likely DHL will seek to further stem losses by reducing its commitment in the U.S. through cost reductions/restructuring and partnerships (outsourcing some line-haul and P&D), while making it clear they intend to remain in the U.S. Look for it to reduce terminals and push more freight towards the ground.

WHAT IS THE TIMING? DHL is in a tough position because if customers believe there is even a chance it will exit the U.S., DHL’s competitive position will be compromised. Thus action needs to be swift, but DPWN tends to be contemplative and current Teamster issues likely prevent a major restructuring before April or May. At this point we expect modest restructuring efforts to be announced on March 6th with a clear indication of remaining in the U.S. and more restructuring to come.

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Postbank and TNT Post focus on own sales outlets

Posted by | Mar 5, 2008 | |

TNT Post and Postbank will be concentrating on their own sales outlets for handling postal and banking business. Both companies announced their intention to transfer their combined services presently offered at the head post offices to their own TNT Post and Postbank locations over the next five years. The current arrangement of head post offices will disappear. The sales outlets in shops where TNT Post and Postbank now jointly offer their services will remain unchanged. With this plan, TNT Post and Postbank are responding to the market trend and catering to the changing demands of the Dutch consumer. The aim of the move for TNT Post and Postbank is to improve the services offered to their own customers.
The new initiatives implemented in recent years by TNT Post and Postbank aimed at catering to changing consumer requirements by locating the services where the consumer now expects to find these have proven very successful, resulting in the growth in the number of customers, customer satisfaction and sales. Over the last few years, the number of head post offices has been cut back from over 2,000 to 250.
Over the next five years, the focus on own sales outlets will result in the disappearance of the activities of the head office of Postkantoren BV in Utrecht and in the 250 remaining head post offices, accompanied by the loss of 1,850 jobs. The two shareholders, TNT Post and Postbank, will make available the financial resources necessary for Postkantoren BV to offer a social plan aimed at guiding all employees into new jobs and avoiding compulsory redundancy as much as possible. A request for a formal opinion on these plans will shortly be submitted to the works councils concerned.

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Postcomm hosts 'Post Theatre' at The IDMF 08

Posted by | Mar 4, 2008 | |

Helping the environment, electronic substitution, the innovation of hybrid mail and the way that Postcomm, the regulator for postal services, sees the future of the postal market, will be discussed at a series of seminars in London.

The three days of seminars make up a ‘Post Theatre’ that Postcomm is hosting at this year’s International Direct Marketing Fair which opens from 29 April – 1 May at Earls Court 2, London.

The liberalisation of the UK postal market has brought about significant changes in the way business postal services are handled. But in parallel with liberalisation, other influences have developed, such as the rise in electronic communication and concerns about the environment.

In a Postcomm survey of business customers in 2007, one in five said they had explored alternatives to mail and had moved some of their mail to other media in the previous 12 months.

While electronic communication has led to substitution, digital technology provides further opportunities for innovation in the mails market. Consumer spending on online shopping grew 50 pct last year and all mail operators are seeking innovative ways to fulfil these orders. Hybrid mail is now available: this is an “electronic-to-physical” service which allows businesses and individuals to send letters electronically from personal computers directly to a print facility near its destination where it is printed, enveloped and delivered locally.

As well as reducing staff time and the need for paper, envelopes and franking machines for the sender, hybrid mail has a reduced carbon footprint compared with traditional delivery networks because it cuts out the need to carry mail over a long distance. Many of the major companies offering hybrid systems will have speakers at the seminar.

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Poste Italiane long term IDR affirmed 'A+'; outlook stable – Fitch

Posted by | Mar 4, 2008 | |

Fitch Ratings said it affirmed Italian postal group Poste Italiane SpA’s long-term issuer default and senior unsecured ratings at ‘A+’ and short-term issuer default at ‘F1’ with a stable outlook.
The ratings reflect Poste Italiane’s strong links with the Italian State, rated ‘AA-‘ with stable outlook.
Fitch said in its view, the strong links stem from the State’s 89.5 pct ownership of Poste Italiane, the large range of state-related tasks performed by Poste Italiane, its role in public sector funding, the contractual relationship between the two as defined in the unsigned Contratto di Programma and the fact that Poste Italiane is the largest employer in Italy.
The postal services activities remain loss-making and are subsidised by the profitable financial services activities. However, the attributable operating loss narrowed in FY 2006 to 4 mln eur from a 227 mln eur loss in FY 2005 on improved efficiency and automation, and an increase — albeit delayed — in domestic mail tariffs in April 2006, Fitch said.

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Korea Post Tops Brand Rankings

Posted by | Mar 4, 2008 | |

Korea Post beat private logistics companies by large margins to be named as the best package delivery service in Korea for the fourth consecutive year.

The Korean Management Association (KMA) announced Tuesday that the government post service scored 596.7 points in its annual Brand Power index, far ahead of private firms such as Hanjin (499.5 points), Korea Express (441.2 points) and Hyundai Express (413.4 points). The KMA report is considered the most credible consumer survey index in Korea.

“It’s the trust of the people that gave us the honor of being first for four straight years,” said Jung Kyung-won, president of Korea Post. “We will continue to expand our logistics infrastructure to raise our national competitiveness and service to the public.”

Korea’s door-to-door package delivery service market has seen extensive competition between the public postal service and private firms such as Hanjin, CJ and GS. Korea Post has excelled in customer satisfaction with the introduction of customer-oriented services such as weekend delivery, morning delivery and airport delivery, the survey said.

This year, Korea Post is also seeking to establish a next-generation logistics system called u-POST (ubiquitous post), based on the synchronization of information with mobile technologies, radio communications and radio frequency identification (RFID) systems. It has been cooperating with the Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute to develop an RFID-based mail operations system.

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