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TNT blows rival out of water as mail deals soar
TNT Post claimed it had benefited from Royal Mail's "complacency" as it revealed it is on target to double to 60 million to number of mail items it handles in Yorkshire this year.
Its upbeat assessment, in which TNT Post said it had seen its business customer base grow strongly, came as TNT, the Dutch group of which it is part, stayed tight-lipped over reports that it had been in talks with the US' United Parcel Service which would see it taken over for E10bn (7.8bn).
Yesterday a spokesman for TNT would not be drawn on whether it had received an informal approach from UPS. It had been reported that UPS's plans to buy TNT could include the sale of the postal division, possibly to a private equity buyer or to team up with a buyout firm such as CVC, the European buyout giant, which already has stakes postal firms in Belgium and Denmark.
Today TNT Post says disaffection with Royal Mail has helped it grow in its North region – which stretches from Stoke to the Scottish Borders and includes Yorkshire – and that it expects to handle 200 million mail items this year, a rise of 144 per cent.
The firm has just recordered its 2,000th enterprise customer, Cunard, part of Carnival Corporation and plc. It will handle the delivery of the luxury cruise line's customer magazine and marketing material.
Andrew Goddard, managing director of TNT Post's North division, said: "The reasons for success are the deregulation of the market and the price."
Its success should "sharpen up" major rival Royal Mail, he added, saying: "When you have a monopoly for decades there is bound to be a bit of complacency."
TNT Post said it had grown its SME customer base in Yorkshire to 1.2m items a week and that 160 of the county's businesses are using its SME service.
It has 62 staff in Yorkshire with more working on contracts for the county from the northern operation's headquarters in Denton, East Manchester. Its Yorkshire work is set to contribute 10.8m to the county's turnover (an estimated 35m across the North, doubling that of last year) and clients include NHS trusts and York City Council, Leeds City Council and Maplin, the Yorkshire-based electronic retailers.
The northern division was set up two years ago to offer small and medium-sized enterprises a chance to benefit from the same postal discounts that bulk mailers receive in the deregulated postal market. TNT Post offers services like PremierSort Flex, a day definite mailing service, for SMEs that send at least 250 unsorted mail items per day or mailshots.
In the north it has launched TNT-it, also for SMEs, which allows users to send letters directly from their computers to TNT Post's print, fulfilment and delivery facilities. It has been trialled in Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Yorkshire and Liverpool and is set to be seen elsewhere later in the year.
A review published in May said the liberalisation of the industry has provided no significant benefits to SMEs but TNT Post insisted its mailing figures showed progress in the sector
Nick Wells, chief executive, TNT Post, said: "Our growing success in Yorkshire is testament to the level of service, flexibility and value for money we can provide SME businesses. These businesses have not been able to make savings like this on post before and we are delighted to be providing them with a service which caters for their exact needs."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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