Tag: Worldwide

Ex-official eyed in Japan Post deals / Former bureaucrat heads firm operating 70 postal cafes, shops

Posted by | Sep 18, 2007 | |

A private company, whose president was a career official at the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry, won contracts granted at the discretion of Japan Post to operate 70 of the 122 cafeterias and shops at 61 of the Kanpo no Yado lodging facilities run by Japan Post for policy holders of postal insurance, it was learned Monday.

The company took over most of the 70 cafeterias and shops from a foundation that was found to have offered cushy jobs to retired bureaucrats via a practice called amakudari after that operator was disbanded as part of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s reform of public-service corporations.

The private company, Yume Kanpo Service, is located in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.

Annual sales of the 70 businesses are estimated at 8 billion yen.

Japan Post takes between 10 and 20 percent of the profits, and the rest goes to Yume Kanpo Service. Each Kanpo no Yado has a cafeteria and a store. Japan Post directly operates five of the other 52 shops and another 35 companies won contracts in a similar manner to run 47 shops. Under the accountancy law, Japan Post is required to put the contracts out to public tender.

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xpedx and Geodis forge new strategic alliance

Posted by | Sep 17, 2007 | |

xpedx and Geodis, two major providers of third party logistics services, today announced they have formed a global strategic alliance that enables both companies to expand their service and geographic reach for customers worldwide.

xpedx and GEODIS provide a complete range of supply chain management services to some of the world’s largest industrial companies, manufacturers and retailers. The new alliance will offer the full range of logistics services including air, sea, multi-modal transport, asset and inventory management, reverse logistics, demand planning and web-based custom reporting, which provides detailed information on all aspects of a customer’s supply chain.

The alliance enables the two companies to better serve and support their customers’ needs for logistics services across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America.

“Thanks to the Geodis network, this alliance allows xpedx to serve its customers wherever they have operations or local logistics needs,” said Dan Watkoske, Vice President of Sales for xpedx. “We will provide Geodis comprehensive geographical coverage and extended logistics service for their customers throughout the U.S. They, in turn, will provide the same for our customers with operations outside the U.S.”

“This alliance complements our recent acquisition of TNT Freight Management now re-branded to Geodis Wilson where we have a number of freight forwarding activities in the U.S. The Geodis Group is now able to extend its global offer all over the U.S.,” said Jean Louis Demeulenaere, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Development for Geodis. “As well, we are happy to extend our relationship with xpedx giving them the opportunity to propose to their clients an offer on a worldwide basis.”

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Malta Post: Third past the post

Posted by | Sep 12, 2007 | |

Malta has just joined Germany and the Netherlands as the third EU member state to fully privatise the postal service.

Privatization has always been something of a hot potato in Malta: more so in the case of the national postal service, whose previous partial privatization resulted in a nosedive in service standards and a disaster for consumers.

So it is surprising that support for the company’s total privatization now comes from the same trade union which in the past had wrestled with former major shareholders, New Zealand company Transend.

Union Haddiema Maqghudin general secretary Gejtu Vella thinks that the total privatization of MaltaPost will bring to an end a “10-year trauma” for postal workers.

Vella regrets that MaltaPost had to pass from a turbulent decade in which it was first turned in to a public company in the mid 1990s, only to revert to a government department in 1998 and to be partially privatized in 2002 when New Zealend state company Transend bought an equity share.

The UHM, which went on the warpath when Transend tried to downsize the number of postal workers, is satisfied by the job guarantee given by Maltapost’s new owners. Maltapost has now promised not to dismiss any worker except for disciplinary proceedures and normal retirement.

Vella attributes the difficulties facing the postal sector worldwide to the arrival of the internet.

Gejtu Vella is also confident that the involvement of a reputable bank will ensure that the new company will survive the European-wide liberalization of the sector in 2010.

Although the EU commission wants the sector to be liberalized by that date, the EU does not impose the privatization of postal services, which are still deemed an essential service.

Postal services in Europe remain largely in public hands, although there has been a movement towards the liberalization of these services with the United Kingdom and social democratic Sweden taking the lead.

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DHL selected as the exclusive courier services provider for the state of Florida

Posted by | Sep 11, 2007 | |

DHL announced that the State of Florida Department of Management Services renewed its contract with DHL as the exclusive courier services provider for all State of Florida agencies and institutions. The State of Florida will continue to leverage DHL’s comprehensive portfolio of domestic services – Same Day, Express, and Ground delivery – for deliveries within the State and nationwide.

Thirty-seven State agencies will use DHL for shipping standard letters, reports, boxes, and time sensitive shipments – including government institutions approved to take advantage of State contracts, the Florida State Lottery, State colleges, schools and local and county governments,

Through the new contract, DHL will provide several customized services for the State of Florida including a special visibility program to identify time-sensitive State of Florida shipments and a dedicated 1-800 customer service line for State users. DHL’s regional sort center in Orlando enables the State of Florida to take advantage of one-day delivery of all ground shipments within the State.

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Retail Viewpoint – Retailers recognise small can be beautiful

Posted by | Sep 11, 2007 | |

It appears that small could become increasingly beautiful in retail land judging by the interest shown by merchants in smaller outlets.

For many years it has simply been about getting ever-bigger sheds near large conurbations while small stores in small towns have been left to remainder book sellers and charity shops.

But we could now be experiencing something of a renaissance in the smaller outlet. The mobile phone retailers have realised that saturation has been reached in the larger towns around the UK and are now focusing their attention on servicing lesser towns through stores with reduced footprints and in the case of O2 it is tying this in with franchising whereby it can run these stores from lower volumes.

B&Q is the latest operator to turn its attention to smaller outlets as it looks to better tailor this part of its portfolio in what are typically smaller towns. The ability to successfully edit the range of such stores to local markets is of paramount importance and ultimately determines the success or failure of smaller stores. But where retailers today have assistance with this tough task is through the use of in-store kiosks with broadband connections where orders can be place by customers for home delivery.

There is also a rekindling of interest with smaller stores in the US where the forthcoming opening of Tesco’s chain of smallish neighbourhood food stores is leading to all the main US supermarkets – including Wal-Mart, Safeway and Whole Foods – to take a look at copying the format and using them to compliment their massive sheds.

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