Tag: Republic of Ireland

A new €1.6m extension to An Post’s national parcel processing facility at Portlaoise Mails Centre was officially opened today by Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources Noel Dempsey.

More than 20,000 parcels are processed at the Portlaoise hub each day, comprising parcel mail posted in Dublin and Leinster, as well as all incoming international parcels.

The 9000 sq ft extension to the mails centre brings to 43,000 sq ft the space devoted exclusively to parcel processing, an operation which involves tariff checking, barcoding, customs clearance (for international items) and sorting for onward dispatch and delivery. An Post chairperson Margaret McGinley said that the company had invested more than euro14m in the Portlaoise Mails Centre since it first opened in 1997 and more than Euro110m in the national mails infrastructure during the past 12 years.

An Post has parted company with its chief operating officer, Larry Donald, and commercial director, Derek Kickham. Both were former ESB managers and had been brought in by the former chief executive Donal Curtin, also from the ESB, three years ago to head his controversial overhaul of the postal group.

Donald has already left the company and Kickham is expected to depart within the next few months. Both their titles have been scrapped under a new organisational structure announced last week by Donal Connell, who replaced Curtin in early July.

The sales and marketing, and retail operations managers, who until now have reported to Kickham, have become part of the group’s top line of management — answerable to Connell.