This report is published by Europe Economics for TNT UK and shows benefits for the UK of GBP 2.29m and 3,300 jobs from competition in UK Mail market with a forecast of additional net benefits of up to GBP 405m and 660,000 jobs by 2016.
Read MoreThirteen post offices in mid Wales are the latest to be earmarked for possible closure as part of Post Office’s UK-wide review.
The changes are needed to make the network viable, says Post Office Ltd.
The proposals also include establishing 24 outreach service points to replace some branches.
Conservatives and Liberal Democrats criticised the plans which could see branches in Montgomeryshire, Ceredigion and Brecon and Radnorshire areas close.
The announcement follows the decision to close 29 branches in Cardiff, Bridgend, Vale of Glamorgan and valleys.
A decision on 25 threatened branches across the Newport and Gwent Valleys has yet to be made.
The proposals for mid Wales will leave 153 post offices – five branches in towns and 148 in rural areas.
The region currently has 166 post offices.
The company says more than 98.8pct of the region’s 200,000 population will either see no change or will remain within one mile, by road, of an alternative branch.
The new outreach service points will provide post office services for a designated number of hours per week in that particular area and could be located within a mobile van, a host shop or village hall.
In very small communities, a home service could be provided whereby a sub postmaster delivers a reduced range of products and services which can be ordered over the telephone.
Under the plans, 89.3pct of the area’s population will retain their existing post office branch, said Post Office Ltd.
Read MoreThe Supervisory Board of Austrian Post formally appointed Mr. Carl-Gerold Mende to the Management Board with management responsibility for the Parcel & Logistics Division. He will begin work in the middle of June 2008.
Carl-Gerold Mende has been named a Member of the Management Board of Austrian Post for a period of three years, with the option of being granted an extension of his employment contract for an additional two years.
Carl-Gerold Mende, with a university degree in business administration, most recently worked for Royal Mail Group Ltd since 2004 as a member of the divisional managing board for the letter mail segment and Director of its International Division, which he transformed into a profitable and sustainable source of growth.
After a short stint as operations agent at Frankfurt Airport, Carl-Gerold Mende began his career with DHL and was later named group manager. In 1985, he took a job at Federal Express Europe Inc., where he led the German management of the “Central District“. At the same time, he concluded his studies in business administration at the University of Applied Sciences in Rendsburg. In 1993, Carl-Gerold Mende was named to the management board of General Parcel Logistic. As Managing Director, he was intimately involved in building up Europe’s largest parcel delivery service. In the years 2001 – 2004, he served as Senior Vice President of GLS Holding in Amsterdam before assuming the position of International Director of Royal Mail in London.
He also represented the interests of Royal Mail as a Member of the Advisory Council of G3 Worldwide (Spring) BV (a joint venture company established by TNT, SingPost and Royal Mail).
Read MoreThe CWU ballot on Royal Mail pensions rolls on. I have more than a hunch that the CWU made a major blunder during the last pay deal talks and over the next few weeks, it will become abundantly clear that that is exactly what has happened.
Royal Mail gave the assurance to CWU leader Bill Hayes that workers opinions would be taken into account and the CWU would be consulted. Hayes interpretaion of that was that nothing would be pushed through without his and Dave Ward’s say so and the pair of them went off smiling, thinking everything was fine and they had set the pension apart from the pay deal. The pay deal was ratified with that impression.
The fact is, Royal Mail HAS consulted workers – it invited everyone to put forward their views and it has talked to the CWU. I’ll admit its not what the CWU thought would happen, but when this is presented to the Trustees, Royal Mail will in fact have met the meaning of the consultation process in full and it will probably be accepted on that basis. This is precisely what Hayes said in a recent circular to reps. It is peppered with bullet points and makes it plain that the CWU isn’t exactly happy abut the pension revision, but if you go through it, CWU HQ don’t appear to have any weight to object to this – other than a threat of upping their campaign – whatever that means.
Royal Mail will have consulted with some of the sharpest solicitors around and it is unlikely that the CWU will have matched that level of expertise. Whether it was down to limited finances or poor legal advisors on the CWU’s part is unimportant, but RM have never at any point said that they would let the CWU decide on how the pension issue shoud be solved – not in any official statement or even in the wording of the finalised pay deal.
We already have at least one example where last year, the CWU had to cover their tracks when the notice given of one bout of inustrial action did not comply with the law and Royal Mail were not only quick to pick up on it, they filed an injunction. The legal advisors that Royal Mail use are very hot on wording and small print and in my view, the CWU was in way out of its depth last year. We had a long phase of both sides refusing to budge until one particular meeting – after which the CWU suddenly changed its tune. You go figure that one, but chances are, Royal Mail laid out the figures that showed the whole picture in terms that Hayes and Ward could understand and they then realised that the strikes were not going to get them anywhere. The deal was closed fairly quickly after that.
Theres also the problem of lost business every time there is a strike. If workers decide to engage in one-day stoppages or head for picket lines, Royal Mail will lose more contracts through downstream access – not to mention the support of customers.
The CWU will continue to make lots of noise, as indeed it has to, but the most workers can expect is a small sweetener after private meetings between the CWU and RM bosses. Despite the talk of strikes, few workers see any merit in another and even if they did, it won’t change the need to restructure a pension scheme in massive debt. Royal Mail’s pension scheme isn’t the only one struggling and many have collapsed – few if any of those people will see their money again. Like the last deal, Hayes will do his best to find some small nugget to present to CWU members as evidence of victory but thats about all.
The hard-liners are tough enough to march enmasses with Burslem blowing in their hair, but Royal Mail isn’t the only operator out there now any more. It may be the biggest final mile service but it is already delivering mail for other companes at less profit – it really doesn’t take a genius to see that the trend will continue and at an even faster pace if workers opt to stand outside delivery offices doing nothing.
Things might have been very different if Royal Mail was the only mail handler operating in the UK but with new postal
Read MoreRoyal Mail has promoted Group Strategy Director, Alex Smith, to the role of Strategy and Commercial Director.
Royal Mail’s UK Marketing Director, Alex Batchelor, who was ranked 28th in Marketing’s 2007 Power 100, and sales director, Mark Thomson, will now report directly to Smith. Royal Mail claims the pair’s roles are unaffected by his appointment.
Smith will now oversee Royal Mail’s review of both its above- and below-the-line ad accounts, which are currently held by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and Proximity respectively.
A Royal Mail board member, Smith joined as Group Strategy Director in 2004. Before this, he worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company for 17 years.
Batchelor, a former Unilever and Orange marketer, joined Royal Mail in 2005.
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