Tag: Royal Mail

Changes in management of Polish Post

Posted by | Mar 27, 2007 | |

Zbigniew Niezgoda resigned from his position as Polish Post’s General Director. Jerzy Polaczek, the Minister of Transport, accepted Mr Niezgoda’s resingation on 23rd March 2007, after consultating with Polish Post’s Board of Directors. The Minister of Transport thanked Mr Niezgoda for almost one and a half years of successful work.

Andrzej Polakowski, formerly Director at Polish Post, was appointed as the new Deputy General Director.

In addition to that, on 27th March 2007 Konrad Mirowski was instated as the Vice General Director of Polish Post.

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Finland Post becomes Itella

Posted by | Mar 27, 2007 | |

As of 1 June 2007, the name of Finland Post Corporation will become Itella Corporation. At the same time, the entire Group will become the Itella Group. The Post’s consumer customers in Finland will not be affected by the change as they will continue to be served under the name “Posti”.

The change of name is based on the fact that, during recent years, the Finland Post has changed from a company conducting only postal services to one offering versatile data and material flow management services.

This change is also required by the internationalisation of the Finland Post Corporation. In addition to Finland, the Group now operates in eight Northern European countries, accounting for 23 per cent of the net turnover. Companies and other organisations account for 95 per cent of the Group’s turnover.

The Finnish consumer will hardly notice the change of name. In the future, post offices, mail carriers, mailboxes, consumer websites and communication and marketing directed at consumers will bear the familiar and trusted name of “Posti”.

Since the beginning of 2007, the Finland Post has used the Itella marketing name in all Group services offered to, and operations directed at, companies and organisations. Finnish consumers will be served under the name “Posti”. The change of the name of the parent company and the entire Group to Itella will also support the brand overhaul that has already taken place.

The names of the company’s subsidiaries will also be standardised during 2007 in all nine countries. Logistics’ subsidiaries will use the name Itella Logistics, and Information Logistics’ subsidiaries will use Itella Information Logistics.

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Italy shows how to make a profit from post offices

Posted by | Mar 27, 2007 | |

Royal Mail could learn something from the humble Italian postie.
Massimo Sarmi, 60, took over Poste Italiane in 2002. Today, he will declare the fifth consecutive year of profits for the company, after more than five decades of losses.
In the first half of last year, the group’s net profits rose by 72.6pc to euro 378m (GBP 257m). By comparison, Royal Mail said last month that its first half profits last year sunk by 86pc to just GBP 22m, although the fall was largely because of a steep rise in the costs of servicing the GBP 6.6bn deficit in its pension fund. Royal Mail has threatened to close half of its 14,000 post offices, which it says are losing it GBP 4m a week. The move would leave many people stranded without a post office for miles.
But while Poste Italiane’s network of post offices is also losing money, it now provides the backbone of a company which has diversified into retail banking, insurance and even selling vacuum cleaners, all of which produce bumper profits for the company.
Consequently, he based his strategy on the fact that he can reach almost every Italian and installed IT systems so that rural post offices could connect to the main office and start happily selling mortgages, bank accounts, and insurance.
Mr Sarmi said Royal Mail should do the same, if it wants to survive.

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Postcomm guidance on Royal Mail participation in competitive tendering

Posted by | Mar 26, 2007 | |

Postcomm has today published guidance on Royal Mail’s participation in competitive tendering, following a consultation on the subject last year.

Competitive tendering – which was non-existent in the former mail monopoly market – has become accepted practice now the market is fully competitive.

Postcomm does not wish to preclude Royal Mail from winning or retaining business awarded by competitive tenders, but it is important that the market has confidence that it is not acting anti-competitively or taking unfair advantage of its size and dominance of the market to gain business.

Royal Mail’s licence requires it to:

* publish its prices after it has won a contract
* refrain from anti-competitive practices
* offer prices which are within the limits of its 2006/10 price control.

The guidance sets out the detail of these arrangements so that other operators in the market can ensure Royal Mail is complying with its licence.

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Rivals call for Royal Mail to slash charges

Posted by | Mar 25, 2007 | |

Royal Mail could be forced by the industry regulator to cut the price of delivering rivals’ letters for the ‘final mile’ a move it claims could be crippling.

At present, Royal Mail charges private competitors 13p a letter to deliver them in the final mile.

Typically, private companies collect mail from large business customers, sort it and take it to Royal Mail sorting offices nearest the postal address for delivery.

But TNT Post, Royal Mail’s biggest competitor, has appealed to Postcomm to force Royal Mail to cut its charges because it says they are so high that competitors are being ‘squeezed out of the market’.

Royal Mail, however, wants the regulator to allow a rise in the 13p charge, saying the fee is too low and preventing it from being able to compete effectively.

Postcomm will examine the rival claims and give a verdict in six months.

But it is already clear that the regulator does not believe that competition is harming Royal Mail and it believes the company is simply trying to protect its monopoly position.

Even though 2.5 billion business letters are being collected by its competitors, the regulator says that the 13p charge for delivering them more than covers Royal Mail’s costs.

Royal Mail says an adverse decision by the regulator could cripple its business, which has already been hit by the ‘loss’ of 2.5 billion business letters, one in eight, to private competition in the past 12 months.

Royal Mail is concerned that this haemorrhage will accelerate as the private postal companies cherry-pick its biggest business customers.

Earlier this month, Postcomm chairman Nigel Stapleton said: ‘Royal Mail is using an attack on the regulatory structure as a smokescreen for its own lack of progress in tackling high labour costs.

‘Since single daily delivery was introduced in 2004, every initiative that the company has taken to improve efficiency has been absorbed either by higher wage rates or increased pension costs.’

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