MAIL VOLUME GROWTH IN ITALIAN POSTAL SECTOR

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Postal services and electronic communications services, Slov, 4th quarter 07

http://www.portalino.it/nuke/modules.ph ... &sid=28534

In the fourth quarter of 2007, the number of postal items was 8% higher than in the same period of 2006. In this comparison the volume of telephony services, expressed in the duration of calls, grew less, by more than 4%.

Number of postal items in 2007 over the level of the previous year


Compared to the same period of 2006, in the fourth quarter of 2007 national traffic grew by 8%. With 288 million postal items, i.e. 17% over the quarterly average, it exceeded the results of each of the previous quarters of 2007. The volume of international traffic grew by 4.5%: the number of incoming postal items was noticeably over the level of the fourth quarter of 2006, while the number of postal items directed abroad increased slightly.


Compared to the previous quarter, the number of postal items increased, too: in national traffic by more than a third (the increase is common for this comparison, in the last five years it has ranged from 18% to 35%) and in international traffic by 17.5%. The number of outgoing postal items increased significantly, while the number of incoming postal items remained practically on the level of the previous quarter.


Regarding the previous year the cumulative result in 2007 is positive - it shows a 3.6% growth of the number of postal items.

Number of telephone lines in fixed telephony continues to fall


427 million minutes of calls were realised in the fourth quarter of 2007, which is less than in the same quarter of 2006. In this comparison national traffic fell by 8.5%, while international traffic increased by 7.5%.


In the fourth quarter of 2007 the realisation of calls from fixed locations was 2% over the previous quarter. The growth of international traffic exceeded also the positive result of national traffic in this comparison period.


As regard the cumulative data 2007, the result for international traffic is a little better than the result for national traffic, too. National traffic fell almost by a tenth in comparison with the realisation of 2006.


The tendency of reducing the number of classic main telephone lines (PSTN and ISDN) goes on. They are being intensively replaced by lines based on internet technology (VoIP lines), which are not included in the presented data. Besides classical telephone lines, more than 122 thousand VoIP lines were in use at the end of December 2007, which is almost three times more than at the end of 2006.


The yearly national traffic in the mobile network grew by a tenth


64% of total outgoing telephone traffic was realized from the mobile network.


This in fact means that in the fourth quarter of 2007 the users of mobile network services exceeded the realization of the same quarter of 2006 by 12% and the realization of the previous quarter by 10%. In both comparisons increase was caused by the growth of national traffic; the duration of international calls did not reach the comparable periods.


Annual data show increase in national traffic, while international traffic in 2007 remained practically on the level of 2006. The traffic mentioned above was performed by more than 1,928,000 users of mobile network; 61% of them were subscribers, the other performed the services using prepaid SIM cards.

[baldrick]

I hope Night Tonic reads this as he seems to believe that mail volumes are falling everywhere.

[DGP1]

I hope Night Tonic reads this as he seems to believe that mail volumes are falling everywhere.

I don't think any information will change his mind

[Night Tonic]

No it won't. The big difference between Italy and most other countries is that it INVESTED in post offices. We have done the exact opposite.

[baldrick]

And we all know who that is down to. :lfo :cfo

[DGP1]

No it won't. The big difference between Italy and most other countries is that it INVESTED in post offices. We have done the exact opposite.

An increase in mail volume has very little to do with investing in PO's.....

[Night Tonic]

There are massive geographical differences too. Much of Italy is rural and highly reliant on postal services. If you'e ever spent any time in Italy, the differences are fairly obvious. The Italians really value their postal service and ploughed money in to expand what they offer. Britain is far more compact and very wired, which as any fool knows is the biggest killer of the post - plus we keep cutting ours back.

[F0zziebear]

Most urban posties would see a rise in volumes on their rounds in recent years via consolidation of rounds and increased density of buildings (more flats, less empty brownfiled sites). However, to say that volumes in general are going up is just wrong. With RM handling 99% of all mail volumes in the country and running the most comprehensive mails characteristics surveys for many years I think we should trust the input (it is carried out by an independent internationally recognised market research company).

you should also be concerned about a possible recession coming as it will put even further pressure on the company. In the last decade volumes have moved away from social mail towards more commercially sensitive volumes. By this I mean direct mailing campaigns and fulfillment. Royal Mail's largest customer is twice the size of it's next largest customer (slightly old stats but true onetheless). Now we've all noticed our friendly banks are having a little trouble over mortgages. Have a tihnk about all the advertising that comes through the letterbox from the banks. Now do you think that will continue? I doubt it somehow, which will leave Royal Mail with greater exposure to this sector and therefore lower revenue. Less revenue means lack of funds to pay into the pension fund, pay wages etc...

I am the prophet of doom and expect to see further problems on the financial front over the next 2-5 years.

[DGP1]

Now we've all noticed our friendly banks are having a little trouble over mortgages. Have a tihnk about all the advertising that comes through the letterbox from the banks. Now do you think that will continue?

Surely this would be the time for increased marketing to try to grab what market share is out there (or do they just think short-term all the time)

[Night Tonic]

Agree on that entirely disgruntled. We may disagree on the figures but I think we all agree the lack of commitment to expanding what we do.

[F0zziebear]

It seems the banks are discouraging people from taking mortgages and therefore less marketing. However, this is just one product and I wouldn't ant to make wider assumptions based on this.

There is another post from today that talks about direct mail going green. You can see the companies who are spending the most of direct mail. Large numbers of banks who are having difficulties. Don't forget the government is major contributor in recent years.

As for investment in expansion. Isn't there a mutli billion pound machinery investment programme kicking off? This will include the latest sorting machinery put into delivery offices. Do you mean investment in people, higher wages, buildings, catering, post offices? Possiblhy all the above?

[Night Tonic]

No - new ideas to give people more reasons to use the post. New equipment alone isn't growth - thats expense.

[DGP1]

It seems the banks are discouraging people from taking mortgages and therefore less marketing. However, this is just one product and I wouldn't ant to make wider assumptions based on this.

There is another post from today that talks about direct mail going green. You can see the companies who are spending the most of direct mail. Large numbers of banks who are having difficulties. Don't forget the government is major contributor in recent years.

As for investment in expansion. Isn't there a mutli billion pound machinery investment programme kicking off? This will include the latest sorting machinery put into delivery offices. Do you mean investment in people, higher wages, buildings, catering, post offices? Possiblhy all the above?

The investment programme only affects operations (although it may help) what we need is an effective sales development department and a change in the senior management thinking that the only thing to do is to cut cut cut cut. If a sales team cannot do their job of increasing sales then they should be replaced with one that can. In short we need to start using our strengths (whatever few we have left) to save the business (and by extension our jobs).