P&O STARTS TO STEAM AWAY FROM BULK SHIPPING
17 May 2002 Associated Bulk Carriers which is 50% owned by P&O has sold four ships to its partner in the Venture, Eurotower for $45m.
Read MoreTag: UK
Reprieve for mail vans, Consignia will drop £300M scheme to hive off fleet
POST Office business Consignia has scrapped a £300 million plan to hive-off its fleet of 40,000 vehicles and its IT operations.
About 5,000 workers would have been affected, and the proposal was being resisted by the unions.
The company announced last year that it would hive off its vehicle and IT needs and several other activities.
But a senior executive has now told Financial Mail: ‘This policy seems to be about moving bodies off our payroll rather than actually saving money.
‘We are not convinced that it will be of financial benefit to us.’
Consignia’s change of heart will come as a blow to BT Fleet, Britain’s biggest commercial vehicle business. It already runs British Telecom’s fleet and was looking to take over Consignia’s.
FDB & Simpson Brothers win contract with Bridgnorth
FDB Distribution and Simpson Brothers (Tyneside) have signed a 3 yera £500,000-a-year warehousing and distribution contract with Bridgnorth Aluminium.
Read MorePost Office gets set for shake up
THE Government is to appoint a separate chairman to Post Office Ltd, which could pave the way for the demerger of the nationwide post office counters business from the Royal Mail and Parcelforce. Consignia, the Post Office’s parent company, is expected to announce within the next few weeks that the counters operation, which includes the network of 17,500 sub-post offices, made a loss last year of more than pounds 100m. Allan Leighton, Consignia’s chairman, is thought to have warned ministers that the group can no longer fund losses in the counters business.
Read MoreConsignia 'close to insolvency'
Loss-making post operator Consignia faces insolvency unless it can win government support, a report said.
Company chairman Allan Leighton, proposing to lay-off 30,000 postal staff in an effort to regain profitability, has warned that the firm will be unable to guarantee its solvency unless it is, effectively, underwritten by the government, The Observer newspaper said.
“We are losing money to such an extent that if we don’t get comfort from the government technically we are trading insolvently,” a source told the newspaper.
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