Tag: UK

Royal Mail given extra pricing flexibility

Posted by | Aug 9, 2007 | |

Postcomm has proposed that Royal Mail be given extra flexibility to increase some retail prices but has decided to leave access margins unchanged in response to the company’s request to review some aspects of the 2006-10 Price Control.

Royal Mail will be allowed to increase prices on certain loss-making products in April 2008 and April 2009 by more than was originally agreed when its four year price control was set. If it wishes, Royal Mail will be able to raise the price of a second class stamp to 29p by 2010, subject to inflation (the original price cap was 26p). The price cap on a first class stamp will not be affected by these proposals.

Postcomm is rejecting requests from TNT and UK Mail to widen the margin between Royal Mail’s prices for bulk mail products and the amount Royal Mail charges them for access to its network and delivery of bulk mail over the ‘final mile’. Royal Mail had also made an application on access, to narrow the margin. However the company has not provided sufficient evidence to support this application and has been unable to justify the level of loss it claims it is making on access mail.

Postcomm’s Interim Review document contains information extracted from Royal Mail’s regulatory accounts which were submitted to the regulator on 31 July in accordance with Royal Mail’s license obligation. Royal Mail has informed Postcomm that the sections of the regulatory accounts, which it normally makes public, will be published by no later than 15 August.

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TNT Post appoints Andrew Firth as a regional Business Development Director

Posted by | Aug 9, 2007 | |

TNT Post is pleased to announce the appointment of Andrew Firth as a regional Business Development Director. Based at TNT Post in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, Andrew will be responsible for developing new business initiatives from Greater London to the Midlands and expanding the company’s rapidly growing client base. He will manage a team of 13 staff and will report to Bob van Ierland, Director of End to End Development.

Andrew joins TNT Post with more than 25 years of experience working in logistics. Previously, Andrew ran his own logistics consultancy handling contracts worth up to GBP 1 million per annum. Prior to that, in 2003, Andrew was drafted in to save a specialist logistics and installation company, which he then made profitable within two years.

The team Andrew joins started operations in August 2006 and focuses specifically on attracting new business from Greater London to the Midlands.

TNT Post now boasts a customer base of more than 200 local businesses in Greater London to the Midlands, with the majority receiving TNT Post’s PremierSort Flex, a two to three day postal service, with Royal Mail continuing to carry out the final mile delivery to customers’ homes nationwide. Current customers come from a range of sectors such as government, automobile and entertainment.

The PremierSort Flex service is specifically tailored to meet the needs of small to medium sized businesses or companies that have lower business mail volumes and offers valuable benefits to local businesses such as: flexible pick up times, cost savings, use of tracking systems that enable improved visibility and management, and a fast and reliable high level of service.

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DHL Express disposes of two subsidiaries to Austrian Post

Posted by | Aug 9, 2007 | |

DHL Express has reached an agreement to sell its Dutch subsidiary Dedicated Distribution Services (DDS) and its Belgian subsidiary Van Osselaer Pieters Colli Service (VOP) to Österreichische Post AG (ÖPAG), the Austrian post office. The transaction is a further step in DHL’s strategy to optimize the strategic synergies within the EXPRESS organization and thus to maximize shareholder value. The transaction will not have any effect on the services provided to existing customers.

“It is our explicit strategy within DHL EXPRESS Global to focus on core express products and services. Our primary focus is to ensure that our businesses are synergistic. This means putting emphasis on systematized products with similar features, standard shipment characteristic and high quality levels. This will ensure that we significantly enhance the quality of our offering and provide increased benefits to customers and other stakeholders. This divestment program is an important step to bring healthy returns on capital employed”, said John Mullen, CEO of DHL EXPRESS Global and Member of the Board of Management at Deutsche Post World Net.

After transferring the DHL Freight business from EXPRESS to LOGISTICS in 2006 and integrating the standard Parcel business in Germany into the MAIL division, the current sale of the two Benelux subsidiaries is another milestone in DHL’s strategic approach to simplify its business processes and to increase the transparency of its product offerings.

The parties have agreed not to disclose the value of the transactions.

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Consumers and Members of Parliament demand to see Royal Mail financial report

Posted by | Aug 9, 2007 | |

Royal Mail came under attack yesterday for refusing to publish its delayed financial results as it emerged that it has given them to the postal regulator.

Royal Mail would not give a reason, but speculation is growing that it wants to avoid controversy over executive bonuses or hide the fact that its financial performance is better than expected. Both issues would prove tricky as it battles with the Communication Workers Union.

Royal Mail said that it had not set a date to make the results public. The figures are for its year to the end of March and usually are published in May. It has avoided a fine by sending the numbers to Postcomm within a deadline set by its license, but the regulator has no obligation to make them public.

The delay comes as postal workers are staging a month of strikes in the worst dispute to hit the business for 11 years and as thousands of post offices are being closed.

Royal Mail had to supply figures to Postcomm no later than four months after the end of the financial reporting period, (therefore, July 31) to fulfill its license. It is obliged to file the accounts with Companies House at the end of next month, six months after the close of its reporting period.

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Move to ease UK postal price controls

Posted by | Aug 9, 2007 | |

Royal Mail should be allowed to increase the price of a second-class stamp from 24p to 29p by 2010 to help its ‘deteriorating financial position, the postal operator’s regulator proposed on Thursday.

But the latest financial data from Royal Mail highlighted the urgent need for the operator to cut costs and improve its productivity.

Nigel Stapleton, Postcomm’s chairman, warned that “significant concerns” about Royal Mail’s financial position had emerged from an interim review of the 2006-10 price control imposed by the regulator.

Postcomm intended to allow some Royal Mail prices to increase “because its financial position is now weaker than it, and we, had envisaged when the control was finalized in May 2006”, Mr Stapleton said.

Under the proposals, the price of a second-class stamp could increase to 29p by 2010, as opposed to the 26p cap under the original control.

The increase would allow Royal Mail to cut the price of bulk business mail, and other items where it faces direct competition from rivals, to try to staunch its loss of market share.

Postcomm warned that Royal Mail had “not capitalised on opportunities” in growing areas of the market, such as online orders for packets – a criticism the company flatly rejected. The regulator said Royal Mail was failing to meet its annual 3 per cent target for improving efficiency, achieving only 1.9 per cent for 2006-07 and a forecast 0.6 per cent over the next three years. Royal Mail’s own analysis suggests it achieved gains of 4.6 per cent in 2006-07.

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