Tag: UK

Nightfreight announced new Executive Chairman

Posted by | Jan 24, 2008 | |

The Nightfreight Group has announced the appointment of Robbie Burns as its new Executive Chairman, which will incorporate the roles and responsibilities of Chairman and Chief Executive. He will be working closely with Peter Louden, Managing Director of the Nightfreight network.

Robbie has been a leading player in the transport and logistics industry for many years, holding a variety of high profile roles. He was the founding Chief Executive of Exel (Logistics) and has held a number of board advisory roles at CTR (Tiphook), Ryder, Tibbett & Britten and Hays. He was the architect of the recent Burns Inquiry into freight taxes and foreign competition on behalf of the RHA and FTA. John Aspin, who has been running the business on a temporary basis, will now resume his position as Non Executive Director of the Nightfreight Group.Robbie commented that: “The UK express freight sector is both dynamic and competitive and has contributed greatly to the growth of the UK economy. Nightfreight will be another new challenge and I am looking forward to helping the team move further forward in both the express freight and 2-man Deliver to Home market segments”.Nightfreight is a specialist delivery business with a well-established national distribution network capable of handling items of all weights and dimensions.

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An Post gets the stamp of approval and delivers profit

Posted by | Jan 24, 2008 | |

For a service provider that was on its knees just a few years ago, An Post has engineered a remarkable reversal of its financial fortunes.

Between 2001 and 2003 it made accumulated losses of EUR 67m, having reported a loss of almost EUR 43m in 2003 alone. There was little doubt the organisation was fit for intensive care.

By late 2003, it was selling assets simply to meet its wage bill. For the first time in its history, it resorted to an overdraft, using the facility during the final weeks of that year. An Post had become a financial basket case.

In early 2004, the then chief executive, Donal Curtin, said the company was on a “knife edge”. He sold off the loss-making SDS delivery business and, in the process of shaking up An Post, alienated the unions. But in 2004, An Post returned to the black, making a profit of over EUR 11.6m from continuing operations. In 2005, that rose to EUR 16.2m, but in 2006 it slipped to EUR 14.6m before exceptional items.

However, the overall profit figures were skewed in 2005 and 2006 by the sale of a site on the Naas Road in Dublin, which resulted in a net gain of EUR 94.7m, and by a further EUR 59.3m gain from the company’s Post TS UK and An Post Transaction Services businesses, which were sold to Alphyra. An Post accounts have yet to be released for 2007.

For years the organisation, faced with the prospect of a completely liberalised market from 2011, has been hatching plans to reduce overheads and boost revenue.

That has resulted in its joint venture with Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis, but also in other attempts to revamp the traditional notion of the service.

Among the ideas previously floated has been the elimination, in some areas at least, of direct-to-door postal delivery. Customers might instead be expected to collect their post from the local post office.

None of this has happened yet, and it could an unemployable strategy as An Post gradually reduces the number of rural post offices, in particular, with a view to streamlining the organisation and preparing for a tougher environment.

But part of its plans to shrink its footprint and save money has incensed some interests, particularly some so-called postal contractors, who provide services in mainly rural areas.

There are currently just under 1,300 such outlets, typically located in local shops such as newsagents.

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Royal Mail recruits ‘experts’ to boost postal campaigns (UK)

Posted by | Jan 24, 2008 | |

Royal Mail has ramped up its commitment to improving the effectiveness of direct mail campaigns by recruiting a panel of expert data partners.

The postal operator is setting up the supplier panel as part of its investment in data services. It will enable it to offer customers data solutions across a range of specialisms to ensure new and existing customers are effectively reached via the post.

Once the panel is complete, it will provide expert solutions covering acquisition, retention strategy, data processing, database work and online services for SMEs. Royal Mail has put in place a client services division and a team of data consultants to support the panel.

Dataforce is the first company to join the panel, following the issue of a tender to find five specialist data supply companies. The company is a UK leader in implementing, executing and managing multi-channel, integrated communication campaigns.

Royal Mail Head of Data Strategy Colin Bradshaw says: “The panel builds our credibility as a supplier of key services to the data industry. Going through the tender process means we are able to choose what we believe to be the best companies to meet the needs of our customers.

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Deutsche Post plans EUR 600 million writedown in U.S.

Posted by | Jan 23, 2008 | |

Deutsche Post AG said it will write down the value of its DHL Express unit’s Americas division as it struggles to compete with United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp.

Deutsche Post will write down 600 million euros (USD 874 million) of assets such as aircraft, trucks and office equipment, reducing 2007 net income, Chief Financial Officer John Allan said on a conference call. The move won’t affect Deutsche Post’s plans to raise the dividend by 20 percent, he said.

Deutsche Post last year scrapped a 2009 deadline for DHL to break even in the Americas, and some investors have called for the Bonn-based company to shed the unit. The carrier’s willingness to keep the business on its books suggests it plans to stay in the U.S. market, said Tim Sailor, principal of Navigo Consulting Group, a Long Beach, California-based firm that advises parcel shippers.

The decision will disappoint investors who want DHL to sell the unit, Damian Brewer, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in London, said in a note to clients.
The postal service bought the business in 2002 to expand its express-parcel delivery network and compete with Atlanta-based UPS and Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx in their home market.

Deutsche Post yesterday reiterated plans for a 2007 dividend of 90 euro cents a share.
The postal service will contract with other companies to handle some information-technology operations, leading to savings of at least 1 billion euros over seven years, Allan said today. Details of the plan, including the contractor, will be released tomorrow.

Deutsche Post announced plans last November to raise at least 1 billion euros from the sale of property to raise cash and attract investors. The postal service has generated more than 350 million euros of that amount so far, Allan said.

Shares fell 0.86 euro to 20.22 euros in German trading. UPS rose 5.6 percent today in New York trading, the most in more than six years, while FedEx climbed 4.8 percent, the most since September 2005.

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Now victims of crime have details lost in post in latest Government data bungle

Posted by | Jan 23, 2008 | |

Sensitive details about victims of crime may have fallen into the wrong hands in yet another lost data bungle by Government officials.
Four computer discs containing confidential details of magistrates court cases are missing after being posted through the Royal Mail.
The missing material includes details of at least 55 defendants and other “restricted” data not released in open court, potentially including the names and addresses of alleged victims and witnesses.
The Ministry of Justice confirmed last night that an urgent inquiry is under way following the latest in a string of blunders, which have seen the personal details of millions lost by the Government.
Last night critics called for a ban on personal data being posted, and called for a new criminal offence of “recklessly mishandling” such material.
In November officials at HM Revenue and Customs lost the entire child benefit database, and earlier this week the Ministry of Defence admitted that a laptop stolen from a Naval officer contained details of 600,000 military staff and potential recruits – leading to a ban on civil servants taking laptops out of offices.
The latest department to come under fire is Jack Straw’s Ministry of Justice.
The courtroom data discs were posted by recorded delivery on December 15 but never arrived, according to insiders.
To compound the humiliation, the discs were being sent as part of an urgent investigation Mr Straw had ordered into a separate fiasco.
The inquiry is into claims that hundreds of magistrates court cases have been quietly dropped when defendants failed to turn up, meaning that many suspects, including sex offenders, may have escaped justice.
As part of efforts to investigate the scandal, court officials put data on the four computer discs which are now missing.
Ministry of Justice officials refused to comment on exactly what “restricted” data had been lost.

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