Tag: UK

GBP 1/4m extension for APC Overnight

Posted by | Jul 30, 2008 | |

APC Overnight has invested GBP 250,000 in extending its national sortation centre at Essington near Wolverhampton.

The company has increased the sorting area by 50 per cent with the addition of an 80m x 30m mezzanine floor, which is serviced by five lifts designed to deliver parcel cages in less than 40 seconds.

APC Overnight now has room to allocate a specific area for each type of business, including the M Sort area for local Midlands-based deliveries, in a bid to streamline and speed up the sortation process.

Ivor Skinner, director of APC Overnight, said: “This investment allows us to create a dedicated area for MailPacks and CourierPacks, which makes perfect sense for the entire operation. These consignments are often the most time sensitive, so now we can segregate them on arrival and take them straight up to the mezzanine to be processed.”

The company has also devoted an area on the mezzanine level to its Security Freight System, which handles valuable items, such as laptops. All parcels travel in separate sealed cages and are hand-scanned using a camera-based system before being sorted and resealed into cages for delivery.

In addition, the company has installed a 1,400 sq m weatherproof canopy over its unloading bays.

The canopy is free of vertical supports to allow vehicles and staff to move around freely, and is designed to be lightweight yet flexible in order to withstand adverse weather conditions.

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SkyPostal Networks, Inc. Announces the Election of Four New Directors

Posted by | Jul 30, 2008 | |

SkyPostal Networks, Inc. announced the election of four new members of the board of directors at its recent shareholders meeting. Mathijs van Houweninge, Florian M. Schuhbauer, and Jose Misrahi will join the recent addition of S. David Fineman as Independent Directors. Christian J. Weber will serve as the Director Europe Sales and Service.

“We are proud to welcome our new independent directors to the SkyPostal board. Their experience and professional expertise are well suited to benefit SkyPostal in its growth strategy thru postal industry consolidation,“ said Albert P. Hernandez, SkyPostal’s President and CEO. “We have sought to assemble a working board of experienced postal and financial executives, who can direct the company in its mission to become a major player in the emerging private postal industry.”

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City Link begins company turnaround

Posted by | Jul 29, 2008 | |

City Link has reported a “positive impact” on service performance following the implementation of its seven-point recovery plan highlighted in its pre-close trading statement.

The company posted an operating loss of GBP 16.9 million on 2nd May for the first quarter of 2008, compared to a profit of GBP 9.3 million the previous year, owing to the difficulties it experienced after the acquisition of Target Express.

The company said: “Customer relationships have improved, attrition has slowed and overall service levels have been restored.”

However, despite the improvement in service for the Rentokil Initial-owned company, revenue has weakened during the second quarter, which City Link says is indicative of “weakening demand generally” rather than customer losses.

The company has identified key areas in which it could save that are expected to deliver payback within the next 12 to 18 months, although this will have a limited impact on results in 2008.

Internal forecasts of losses at City Link have also now stabilised.

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Post Office travel services sees boom in pre-olympics yuan sales (UK)

Posted by | Jul 28, 2008 | |

During July 2008 the UK’s largest provider of foreign currency the Post Office has seen a 44 per cent increase in its sales of Chinese yuan compared to the same period last year.

Post Office head of travel services Helen Warburton said: “The huge demand for yuans at Post Office bureaux de change over the last few weeks shows that many people are planning to travel to China. We advise Olympic travellers to make sure they take a mix of travellers cheques, payment cards and currency.

“Although ATMs are widely available across Beijing and China, the acceptance of foreign debit and credit cards can be a bit hit and miss so travellers should make sure they take a sufficient supply of yuan to meet their initial day to day needs.”

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Are postal catalogues finished?

Posted by | Jul 28, 2008 | |

One respected industry analysis firm estimates that one in four UK mail order companies are now operating at a loss. Of nearly 900 mail order companies analysed, over 200 are currently rated by Plimsoll as being ‘in danger’. Jotham Danquah MD of Zmags (UK) explains more.

Many of the industry’s problems are converging at exactly the same moment – high inflation in raw materials, printing costs and transport are all combining with an economic downturn which was reflected in June’s record 3.9 per cent drop in retail sales (the highest drop ever recorded).

The key question therefore is whether postal mail order as a business model is doomed? Bloomingdales, the famous US retailer seems to think so. The company recently announced that it sees no future in postal mail order and is quitting it altogether in 2009. Given that Bloomingdales is owned by Macy’s, the second largest US retailer, such a move is not insignificant.

What has driven Bloomingdales’ decision? Online mail order. After all, why spend millions printing and distributing catalogues when the internet is readily available at a fraction of the cost? Bloomingdales expects USD 1 billion in internet sales this year alone which is not far behind its high street retail sales figure.

The internet is now transforming the mail order industry as demonstrated in the UK by Littlewoods Shop Direct (the UK’s market leader) where one in three sales are now made online. In fact, Littlewoods expects online orders to represent half of all sales by 2009. This is the future.

A key part of this transition to the internet is the growth of online digital page-turning software. These solutions, of which Zmags is one example, are downloaded quickly, are fully functional and offer a few advantages over postal catalogues. One example? Page-turning software can incorporate still photos that come to life and move as embedded video when clicked-upon.

Furthermore, catalogues are easily transferred online using pdf software conversions. It’s a straightforward process that transforms a postal catalogue into a digital page-turning version within the space of a few minutes. Free trials are readily available through most providers.

In short, digital catalogues offer an especially powerful way of tapping into the power of the internet and harnessing its ability to generate catalogue sales.

What are the cost advantages? Well that depends on factors such as list costs, email broadcast etc but as a rule digital catalogue versions cost 10 per cent of the postal catalogue costs. With the mail order industry working to 2% pre-tax margins that’s a critical cost saving.

The postal catalogue is not finished – far from it because people will always want to read a hard copy from the comfort of their sofa. However, postal mail order is coming under severe pressure from two sides: catalogue production/distribution inflation on one side and the rise in internet sales from the other. For the above reasons, I expect postal catalogues to continue their decline with digital catalogues taking their place.

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