Tag: Republic of Ireland

Pall-Ex is named as Business of the Year

Posted by | May 1, 2007 | |

Pall-Ex is delighted to announce winning the much coveted Business of the Year Award, at a ceremony for the Leicestershire Business Awards.The evening’s events were attended by representatives from 18 finalist companies from across the region.

The finalists for the award included Pall-Ex, Rushcliffe, and Geosynthetics. There were four rounds of judging before the winners were announced. Competition at this stage was tough. With 20,000 sq ft of storage Geosynthetics, part of the Hansam Group, is regarded as the largest distributor of geosynthetic material in the UK. Essentially they distribute fabrics which are used for soil stabilisation. Rushcliffe Care specialise in care for the elderly, and were finalists for the Success Through People award.

To win Business of the Year, Pall-Ex needed to demonstrate stability and strong reputation within the Leicestershire economy. The company easily exceeded these criteria by recently celebrating a landmark 10 years in business, and by currently assessing opportunities to expand the operation by building another hub in the style of the existing GBP 12 million investment situated in Ellistown, Leicestershire, close to the A50 and M1.. Essentially, Pall-Ex unites 100 member depots from across the UK. These regionally based haulage companies collect freight from their designated postcode areas, destined for other parts of the country or Europe. The freight is then transported to the central Pall-Ex transhipment hub.

At the hub, the freight is sorted by delivery area and assigned to the haulier serving that location for delivery. Next day and economy services are available. Pall-Ex has access to over 7,500 vehicles and more than five million square feet of warehousing in the UK and Europe. The co-ordination of freight collections and deliveries, minimizes mileage and maximises the usage of vehicle capacity. Essentially the Pall-Ex service concept is simple. They provide an organizational solution for cost effective distribution of palletised freight. The scale of the operation however, is breathtaking. Serving every UK postcode, from a 23 acre hub, Pall-Ex has a typical throughput of around 9000 pallets per night.

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An Post and Fortis bid for 5% of banking sector

Posted by | Apr 30, 2007 | |

Postbank, a joint venture with Belgian bank Fortis, will initially operate out of 250 post offices nationally, rising to 1,000 over the next 12 months.

The venture will employ 250 people at the outset, 100 of which are new jobs.

Speaking at the official launch of the euro 112 million venture yesterday, Minister for Communications, Noel Dempsey, said that while the financial services sector in Ireland was already highly populated, there was definitely room for a community-based offering from a group such as An Post.

He said that the service offered by many of Ireland’s existing banks was far from customer friendly and that a new banking offering from An Post was very well-placed to benefit from the positive role post offices already play in many local communities.

According to An Post, 40 per cent of adults visit a post office once a week with more than three quarters visiting once a month and these are exactly the people Postbank is seeking to attract as its customers.

From tomorrow consumers will be able to avail of what Ms Sweeney calls a “very favourable” interest rate on a “very simple” deposit account – exact details of which are to be released later today – and another separate investment product at 250 different post office outlets around the country.

Over the course of the year, and in response to customer demand, the range of products will be expanded to include current accounts, loans, credit cards, ATM services and web-based banking.

Postbank is aiming to have a workforce of 500 within the next three years.

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Postbank starts trading this week

Posted by | Apr 30, 2007 | |

Postbank, the financial services joint venture between An Post and international financial services group Fortis, will start trading this week and will provide savings and investment products initially.

According to chief executive Margaret Sweeney, the full range of banking services, including loans and mortgages, will be available in a year.

“We will provide a simple approach to banking – I think that’s what consumers want,” she said.

She added that research has shown that what consumers want is “less confused” banking.

Ms Sweeney conceded that it will be an uphill battle in the already competitive banking market.

Competition in the market has heated up in the past year, with new entrants and online banking services vying for consumer accounts.

However, she added that with over 75pc of adults visiting a post office once a month, Postbank plans to attract a significant proportion of these customers to its banking services.

Ms Sweeney said that products will be very competitive and will offer attractive saving and investment returns, although she would not give any examples.

Postbank will start trading from over 250 post offices tomorrow and full services will be extended to 1,200 post offices in the coming year.

An Post spent a hefty euro 13.9m finding its euro 112m joint venture financial services partner last year and wrote off the expense as an exceptional cost in its 2006 accounts, rather than capitalising the cost in the Fortis joint venture which is called Postbank.

The euro 13,883,000 expense was incurred by An Post “in relation to the process of identifying and selecting a joint venture partner, subsequent negotiations and signing of the (JV) agreement”, according to the recently released An Post annual report.

Postbank expects to have a workforce of 500 people within three years. “This launch brings a new dimension to banking services in Ireland,” Ms Sweeney said.

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Up to 100 post offices could face closure as An Post reviews network

Posted by | Apr 27, 2007 | |

As many as 100 post offices across the country could close as part of An Post’s plans to review its branch network,

Chief executive Donal Connell confirmed that a review of all its offices will begin this year.

“We have 1,533 post office and agencies nationwide and that is the higher number of branches per capita in Europe. We need to determine the optimum configuration for this network for the future, bearing nature of the community we serve,” he said at the launch of the company’s annual report.

Mr Connell said it was not possible to give an absolute figure on how many post offices would close but admitted that if Ireland moved to the European average, it would result in 100 branches closing.

Any closures arising from the review of the branch network are likely to be in rural locations.

An Post’s 2006 annual report reveals the company made a pre-tax profit of euro96.5 million up from euro40.9m in 2005. The jump in profits is mainly the result of the euro94m gain on the sale of the former SDS depot on the Naas Road.

At operating level, which strips out the gains from exceptional items, An Post made a profit of euro14.6m compared to a profit of euro16.1m in 2005. Included in the accounts is a euro20m charge related to a deferred pay rise for its workers.

Turnover for the year was up strongly from euro752m to euro818.8m. Mr Connell said this was the result of an increase in the volume of mail sent (up 4%), price rises and a rise in the number of people using its money transfer system.

Mr Connell, who was appointed last August, said it would take three years before An Post hit the next day delivery target of 94%.

The last survey of postal service by the industry regulator ComReg found that only 74% was delivered the next day. The chief executive said the failure to hit the 94% level was due to a number of factors including An Post work practices.

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An Post in EUR3m service deal

Posted by | Apr 23, 2007 | |

An Post has won a EUR3 million contract to provide direct marketing, mailing and billing services for a UK home shopping company.

The State postal company has signed a deal with Oxendale’s, one of the UK’s biggest home shopping and delivery companies, to provide it with a range of services in the Republic.

Oxendale’s customers order goods online or from catalogues.

An Post will deliver them, bill customers, distribute brochures and catalogues, and handle returns in the Republic for the British company.

An Post said yesterday that the new deal would be worth in the region of EUR3 million a year.

It won the contract against a number of pitches from a number of international carriers, including operators based in the UK.

The orders and deliveries will be managed through An Post’s main parcel delivery hub in Portlaoise, Co Laois.

An Post’s sales and marketing director, Liam Sheehan, said yesterday that the deal will be an important new business for An Post.

“Catalogue and e fulfilment are strong growth areas for An Post and improvements in delivery performance help our customers to sell more,” he said.

Oxendale’s managing director, Ronnie Coffey, said the company expected to post around 500,000 parcels through An Post over the next year.

Oxendale & Company Limited is a sister company to JD Williams & Company Limited, the UK’s leading direct home shopping company.

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