TNT Annual Report 2007 analyst comments
TNT Annual Report 2007 analyst comments
Read MoreTag: Mail Services
Rentokil gets ratty over City Link and shows boss the door
Rentokil Initial has axed the head of its troubled courier business, City Link, following last December’s shock profits warning.
Michael Cooke has been turfed out just two weeks before Rentokil announces fullyear figures, and amid growing fears it could be about to issue a further earnings alert.
The parcels delivery boss has been replaced by Petar Cvetkovic, the former chief executive of Target Group, which Rentokil bought in December 2006 for £210m.
A Rentokil spokesman said it was Cooke’s decision to move on. But another source said the parcels boss had been shown the door following last December’s profits warning.
At that time, Rentokil said fourth quarter profits from City Link would be £10m below expectations.
However, sources suggested that continued poor trading at City Link could mean it misses target by as much as £24m.
Rentokil (down 3.1p at 107.8p) declined to comment on the figure.
Any further setbacks with the group’s full-year numbers is likely to heap pressure on Rentokil chief Doug Flynn to stand aside. Flynn was appointed in April 2005, but he is finding it tough to coax a consistent performance out of the hotch-potch of assets, which include pest control, washroom services, tropical plants, and parcels.
Additionally, a source said Rentokil’s human resources director Andy Kemp has signed senior managers to ‘golden handcuff’ deals of guaranteed bonuses of 100pc of salary as the group fears a mass exodus.
Rentokil declined to comment, but sources suggested this was wide of the mark.
Read MoreARCEP publishes the results of its public consultation on access to mailboxes (France)
Legislators included in the postal regulation law of 2005 the principle of equal access to mailboxes between authorised postal operators and the universal service provider, La Poste. Already in 2004-2005, postal operators complained of difficulties in gaining access to mailboxes in residential apartment buildings having opted for permanently restricted access. New entrants on the market complained of a discriminatory situation with respect to La Poste which had means to enter all apartment buildings. It quickly became clear that to restore the equity desired by the law, a technical analysis of the situation would be necessary. In November 2006, ARCEP initiated discussions with all players concerned by the problem of access to mailboxes. In addition to the distribution operators directly concerned—authorised postal operators, press delivery services, parcel distributors—property professionals also contributed to the work. These discussions helped to establish a diagnosis, highlighted the complexity and variety of situations and raised other questions which are not under ARCEP’s jurisdiction, which is limited to access to mailboxes for operators holding a postal authorisation. In late November 2007, ARCEP launched a public consultation in order to share its analysis of the situation, collect as many points of view as possible and to come up with solutions.
Read MoreNew Zealand Post adopts pricing in proportion
New Zealand Post today announced new pricing for domestic letters and parcels which better reflects the cost of delivering these services.
Mail will be priced in direct proportion to its size and weight from 28 March 2008.
“The vast majorities of letters sent are small or medium and will not change in price. A medium letter sent Standard Post will still cost 50 cents,” said New Zealand Post’s Chief Executive Officer Postal Services Peter Fenton.
Mr Fenton says that size makes a difference to the cost of handling mail.
Mr Fenton said New Zealand Post was known internationally as a low-cost postal service and the new ‘pricing in proportion’ approach would not change this.
“A foolscap envelope (E35 sized, less than 20mm thick and weighing under 500gm) would cost NZD 5.97 to send in Australia and NZD 3.81 Second Class in the UK in New Zealand currency, but is still only NZD 2.00 in New Zealand under pricing in proportion.”
International and bulk mail services are not affected by the changes.
Parcel dimensions and corresponding prices will also change under pricing in proportion in line with the new letter prices. Already purchased existing prepaid bags and parcel tickets will remain valid.
Smaller lighter parcels will go down in price as a result.
A new range of parcels called ParcelPost™ is being introduced to replace the current packet and parcel services. The ParcelPost™ range includes new handy pre-paid bags to make sending smaller items more convenient and provides proof of delivery for an extra fee.
Read MoreComReg publishes its 2008-10 Postal Strategy Statement
The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) today
published its Strategy Statement for the Postal Sector in Ireland for the
period 2008 – 2010. The statement sets out ComReg’s vision of a
dynamic and competitive market offering an increasingly wide range of
competitively-priced, quality postal products and services.
Postal services have long been recognised as an essential part of
Ireland’s economic infrastructure and this is reflected in the Universal
Service Obligation and other such safeguards in the interests of users.
The Strategy Statement notes that the European Council and the
European Parliament have now adopted a Common Position on the third
Postal Directive, setting a deadline of 31 December 2010 for the full
market opening of postal markets.
This new Directive will provide Member States with the flexibility to tailor
the regulatory framework to suit national characteristics. The Minister for
Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan TD, has
already announced that he will consult with stakeholders on the options
available to him before transposing the Directive into Irish Law. The need
to balance the desire for light-handed regulation with the need for proper
controls to deter any potential for anti-competitive activity will be
fundamental in determining how this is best achieved.
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