Tag: Royal Mail

GLS announces positive result

Posted by | Jul 16, 2007 | |

General Logistics Systems B.V. (GLS) reported its 2006/07 results showing higher parcel volumes, sales and profits continuing the positive trend of the past years.

Revenues rose by 4.3* per cent to 1.6 billion euros, EBITA by 15.4 per cent to 179.4 million euros. Shipped parcels increased in 2006/07 by 7.7 per cent to 311 million. International shipments grew by 20 per cent – an especially strong growth rate that reflects GLS’ continued investment in, and development of, its European network.

Capital investment totaled 75 million euros in 2006/07. The larger investments included new hubs and depots in Germany, France, Denmark and Hungary. In addition, GLS made a number of acquisitions to increase its presence across Europe. In December 2006, the acquisition of ABX Belgium Distribution was completed strengthening the company’s presence in the important Benelux market. In Italy, GLS acquired three more franchise areas; thereby increasing the total number of GLS managed depots in Italy to 21.

In addition to investing in the physical network, investments and the continuing development of information technology remains an area of specific focus. GLS has replaced 12.000 scanners in the last financial year, is currently implementing new scanner technologies group-wide and is preparing an online link for its entire fleet of delivery vehicles, a measure that will accelerate shipment tracking to real-time.

In 2007/8, the group plans to increase its activities in Italy and Spain and to enter the Romanian market. The GLS group is targeting revenues of two billion euros and pre-tax profits of 200 million euros by 2009.

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Update on CWU strike action at Royal Mail

Posted by | Jul 13, 2007 | |

Royal Mail said the Communication Workers Union strike had slipped and remained extremely patchy with the percentage of people coming to work ranging from 5 pct to more than 60pct around the country. Royal Mail added that the network of 14,220 Post Offices was operating as normal.

The company said that, as ever, it is willing to meet the union at any time. Royal Mail met Dave Ward and Billy Hayes on Wednesday evening to explain again the company’s urgent need to change, as all its major rivals in the UK postal services market have already done, if it is to thrive in an increasingly tough marketplace. Chairman Allan Leighton and Chief Executive Adam Crozier set out the very serious competitive threat facing the company and its people but the union nevertheless decided to go ahead with a second damaging 24-hour strike which started at 7pm last Thursday.

Royal Mail has offered a package of pay which gives a basic pay rise of 2.5% for change as well as a GBP 800 dividend if we hit our targets – plus the opportunity to earn a 50:50 share of any savings over and above budget.

Mr Leighton called on the CWU to accept the absolute need to modernise and take off their block on local change in 250 operational units where changes have been agreed with our people and the union locally but blocked by the CWU at a national level.

Royal Mail remains very willing to meet the union at any time to explain the company’s position.

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Dunne: Royal Mail pricing proposals set to hit rural areas the hardest

Posted by | Jul 12, 2007 | |

Philip Dunne, MP for Ludlow, today criticized Royal Mail’s plans to charge large postal customers higher prices for delivering bulk mail in rural areas.

It has been calculated that 80 pct of households and 90 pct of postcode sectors in the Ludlow constituency are in the area Royal Mail considers the most rural. These areas will attract the biggest surcharges.

Royal Mail’s proposals are to increase prices by over 10.2 pct for bulk mail deliveries in rural areas while prices in urban areas rise by only pct%.

The rural surcharge proposals for large mailings raise damaging implications for rural postal services and rural communities:

– Mail volumes going to rural areas will decrease and the unit costs of deliveries will increase;
– This in turn will put pressure on Royal Mail to reduce services in rural areas in the future;
– Rural post offices involved with mail delivery will see a declining volume of mail handled placing them in even greater jeopardy and;
– Significant additional costs will be placed on rural business and organizations.

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Royal Mail criticized over pricing

Posted by | Jul 11, 2007 | |

The Royal Mail has faced criticism from the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) after their Pricing in Proportion initiative is shown to raise costs for small businesses.

60 pct of businesses participating in a survey conducted by the BCC stated that their postage costs had risen because of the change in pricing. Only 16 pct felt that Pricing in Proportion (PiP) had simplified the system, and fewer than 1 pct believe that it is an improvement on the previous pricing scheme.

The PiP system was designed to be a revenue neutral exercise for the Royal Mail, basing costs on the size of mail as opposed to weight, reflecting the expense of handling larger pieces of mail. The survey indicates that PiP has failed to simplify the system for customers, and has even raised postage costs for some.

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TNT uses strikes to put pressure on Royal Mail

Posted by | Jul 11, 2007 | |

TNT said the wave of industrial action hitting Royal Mail underlined the need for it to develop a full-blown rival service.

The Dutch-owned company, which uses Royal Mail to provide “final mile” postal delivery, said its customers were suffering disruption from the action by the union but it would not be suing the Post Office because it accepted that the state-owned group was protected by “force majored” contractual clauses.

TNT is the only company known to have been developing concrete plans to launch a complete rival service including the use of its own postal delivery staff. Its British boss, Nick Wells, said the impetus to proceed with such a project was higher than ever.
TNT has been undertaking full-scale trials of next day door-to-door deliveries in Glasgow and Manchester although the vast bulk of its daily mail is distributed to homes through Royal Mail under the specially licensed “final mile” system used by several private operators.

TNT’s group chief executive, Peter Bakker, said recently that Britain was one of its most important markets, showing healthy growth. The company is distributing more than 1 billion items of mail a year in the UK and many customers have migrated from Royal Mail, including telecoms group BT, which recently signed a contract worth up to £ 90m.

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