Tag: UK

Minister to talk with UK Royal Mail‘s Leighton after tough efficiency targets agreed

Posted by | Dec 29, 2005 | |

Ministers are to open talks with Royal Mail over its demands for up to Pounds 2bn of investment after the postal operator agreed to tough new targets for improving efficiency. The negotiations, which will run well into the new year, are expected to focus on several options, all of which would involve the government, which is the state-owned postal operator’s sole shareholder, putting public money into the company. With Royal Mail’s financial position precarious, and trade unions fearful of another round of job cuts, its management is lobbying the Department of Trade and Industry for help. One option under discussion would be to provide the company with a loan repayable over a number of years. Another option, favoured by Royal Mail, could be some form of equity investment, not unlike a rights issue, under which the government would inject cash as equity in return for a bigger dividend in future. Alan Johnson, trade and industry secretary, will lead the talks with Allan Leighton, Royal Mail chairman.

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UK watchdog in pledge over postal services

Posted by | Dec 28, 2005 | |

The landmark opening of the UK’s GBP6.5bn postal services market to full competition on January 1 will take five years to have its full impact, the postal regulator has said. But Nigel Stapleton, chairman of Postcomm, stressed the “pace of change” should be faster than the liberalisation of the UK telecoms and energy markets. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Stapleton vowed that Postcomm would use its full range of powers including prosecutions to ensure that liberalisation is not accompanied by a collapse in basic service standards. He cited the deregulation of directory enquiries in 2003, which triggered concerns about new entrants to the market giving out the wrong phone numbers, as a cautionary example of the need to protect market integrity. “As far as we’re concerned, a major issue in how successful competition will be is if we can maintain customer confidence,” Mr Stapleton said.

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Royal Mail to stamp its mark with German postal system

Posted by | Dec 24, 2005 | |

Christmas cards have never been a big thing in Germany. An enthusiastic card-sending nation, such as the UK, sees its mail bags swell by half to 120m over the festive period. The German postal system carries a surprisingly low 72m letters a day year-round. It is also estimated to have far less of a Christmas card boom. The main reason is probably cultural – friends seem more inclined to meet up over mulled wine at a Christmas market or perhaps send greetings by e-mail. But might the cost and complexity of using Deutsche Post’s services also play a part? For a start, a standard card needs a 55 cent stamp in Germany. Across Europe, only Denmark’s 58 cent postage is more expensive, according to a study this month by the Free and Fair Post Initiative, an association of postal users and private-sector postal operators. Then there is the challenge of sticking the right stamp on your missive. Deutsche Post has 64 different postal tariffs.

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REaD Group buys pay-as-you-go preference service

Posted by | Dec 22, 2005 | |

Suppression specialist The REaD Group has acquired direct marketing preference service My Right To Be Private (MRTBP) for an undisclosed sum.

The online business, which launched earlier this year, aims to protect consumers from unsolicited product marketing. It charges subscribers for services including having their names removed from lists used by the top 50 UK client companies and being added to the Mailing Preference Service and Telephone Preference Service.

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