Thistle for Wincanton
Thistle Hotels has awarded Wincanton the contract to manage its foodservice delivery network in the UK. It will share the network set up for Scottish & Newcastle two years ago.
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Consignia given assurance of government rescue package
Consignia, the loss-making post operator, has been assured by ministers that it will get a rescue package good enough to guarantee its future.
The move yesterday by Patricia Hewitt, trade and industry secretary, holds out hope to the renamed Post Office that it will receive an injection of government funds out of the £1.8bn it paid to the Treasury when it was profitable in the 1980s and 1990s.
Consignia executives had warned that, without a “statement of comfort”, the company technically would be trading insolvently and could not sign off its accounts.
Consignia taps dividend cash
CONSIGNIA, the post operator, is believed to have secured access to pounds 1.8 billion from the Government to shore up its battered finances ahead of a three-year emergency restructuring programme. The renamed Post Office, which is losing pounds 1.5m a day, paid the sum in dividends to the Government – its 80pc shareholder – throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Until now, it has only been able to tap the interest. The pounds 1.8 billion is invested in gilt-edged securities held on Consignia’s books but owned by the Treasury. It is not clear whether the sum will be a loan or a gift from the Government.
Read MoreBrussels jeopardises GBP 270M Post Office closure plan
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening to intervene over a pounds 270m aid package put together by the UK Government to support the closure of 3,000 urban post offices.
Officials in Brussels have questioned whether the subsidy should be allowed under the Commission’s state-aid rules, pointing out that the post office closures are largely the result of the Government’s policy.
Sub-post masters are being offered an average of pounds 60,000 or two years’ income if they agree to close down. The programme is aimed at reducing the size of the urban post office network by a third.
Postcomm consults on interim licence for Speedmail
Postcomm today began consultation on the proposed issue of short-term licence to Speedmail International Ltd. Speedmail wishes to provide mailroom services for businesses, collecting mail from Consignia, pre-sorting it and delivering it direct to individuals at clients’ premises. It also wants to deliver letters connected with publications to the London postcodes in which it already delivers.
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