European Warehouse Market Research. 2004.
European Warehouse Market Research. 2004.
Read MoreTag: UK
Monitoring developments in the UK postal market
Survey recommends speeding-up postal competition
A survey commissioned by Postcomm into the non-residential postal market and attitudes to the introduction of competition could have important implications for Postcomm’s plans for the next stage of market opening.
The survey found that business customers were generally not well informed about competition and most had not approached or been approached by a potential new operator. But a third of the companies would consider switching some or all of their mail to new entrants. It concludes that Postcomm should consider speeding-up the introduction of full competition.
Postcomm chairman, Nigel Stapleton said:
“It is disappointing – but not perhaps surprising — that almost 18 months into the first stage of a UK competitive mail market, Royal Mail still has more than 99% of the letters business.
“With Royal Mail back in profit and customer service suffering, we see additional reasons for ensuring competition bites. The commission will look very hard at the survey’s recommendations that we speed up the introduction of competition in postal services, before we issue our competitive market review in September.”
Postcomm commissioned the survey, by consultants Roland Berger, as part of its forthcoming competitive market review. The company contacted more than 500 business mailers, some of whom spend more than £500,000 a year on postage.
Among its recommendations the survey says:
Postcomm should consider full market opening earlier than April 2007
If earlier full market opening is not possible, in 2005 Postcomm should open the business-to-business market segment in preference to reducing the volume threshold on bulk mail as planned
Postcomm should work towards uniform conditions for all entrants – including reviewing Royal Mail’s VAT exemption
Access by operators to Royal Mail’s downstream network should be promoted as a reliable alternative to full end-to-end coverage.
Roland Berger interviewed a total sample of 549 customers as shown in the table:
Segment Definition (by mail expenditure pa) Number of interviews Volume
Top 500 Greater than £500K 56 76.57%
Large £200K to £500K 253 20.93
Medium £30K to £200K 94 1.94%
Small £10K to £30K 146 0.56%
Total 549 100%
Deutsche Post nears UK network access agreement
Deutsche Post, the part-privatized German postal group, has set its sights on becoming Britain’s second-largest operator after securing access to Royal Mail’s delivery network.
Read MoreNotes/statistics from meeting with Vanessa Leeson
1. Turnover currently £270 million
2. 3-4% pa growth this year
3. now down to 5,000 employees with a plan to get down to 4,000 by 2004/05
4. 70% of top 20 accounts are B 2 C
5. 50% overall B 2 C in business
6. 7% overall unable to effect delivery first time – means 14% for PAD’s
7. Now down to below 9% attrition rate of customers
8. Have taken Rob Peto from GeoPost to install Customer Profitability systems – is doing well with the project
9. Business focus is:
a. B 2 B – currently very close to 3 very large potentials
b. Adding value to the B 2 C package – focus around notification of delivery day and time to the sender
c. Focus on SME’s
d. Bring more flexibility to depot operations
e. International development – have appointed 3 RGM’s re[porting to an International Mgr who reports to Dom McKenna
10. Break even is still the objective by 2004-05 and + £25 million the year after
11. Planning also to sort out some structural issues such as:
a. VAT
b. Interest payment on accumulated losses – costs circa £45 million a year to Parcelforce!
Read MoreUK postal price changes from 1st April
Royal Mail’s postal prices will change from 1st April, with the basic price of a second class stamp rising by 1p to 21p. However, the price of a basic first class stamp will remain unchanged at 28p.
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