14 May 2002

World Mail Awards 2002 - Winners Announced

Postal industry organisations worldwide are becoming ever more innovative in their marketing of mail and other products.

That was one of the key points to emerge from the prestigious World Mail Awards 2002 ceremony organised by UK-based Triangle Management Services and held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands last night (May 13).

Prominent among the winners, for example, was Australia Post which won the “Marketing Campaign of the Year” category for its “Retail Post” programme of retail outlet modernisation and electronic point-of-sale system incorporation.

In the early 1990s, the retail component of Australia Post was losing over A$100 million a year. Postal agencies and small corporate outlets were typically unprofitable. Most post offices were outdated and poorly located. Australia Post had low returns on revenue and a high cost per transaction, limited counter technology and a poor community image.

That caused Australia Post to rethink its direction and embark on a programme of modernisation, service improvement and a broadening of the retail product base. One outcome was the introduction of “Retail Post” to provide new outlet formats (Post Shops, Business Centres and Postpoints), new merchandise ranges, more commercial arrangements with agencies, investment in image/fit-out costs, offset by reduced property holdings, and a range of other developments. It also enabled the introduction of EPOS and later netPOS, Australia Post’s electronic point of sale system.

As a result, customer numbers in Post Shops have increased by around 25 percent over the last five years, from 800,000 per day to 1,000,000.

“Today, our Retail Post Shops are bright, attractive and profitable and have been a key contributor to Australia Post recently gaining the award for the most respected corporation in the country,” stated Australia Post in its submission for the World Mail Awards 2002.

The accelerating pace of innovation in the global postal industry as a whole was further highlighted by the master of ceremonies at the Mail Awards 2002 ceremony, Dutch television presenter Astrid Joosten.

“Post offices have been quick to extend into growth areas like e-messaging, airfreight and logistics. This trend has helped post offices to benefit from substantial collection and distribution synergies, although this has often happened in areas outside traditional regulated home markets,” she told guests at the awards dinner in the Hilton Hotel, Apollolaan.

“The boom in home deliveries, driven by the Internet, will provide post offices with a major opportunity to boost sales using their existing comprehensive delivery networks,” she added.

Altogether, postal industry organisations from Europe, North America, South America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa submitted nearly 100 applications - more than double the number the previous year - for the latest World Mail Awards which are designed to encourage and publicise best practise within the mail industry.

This year’s awards covered seven categories, all of them representing key areas of activity for that sector. The winners were:

• Internet Commerce (sponsored by Accenture): ihavemoved.com (UK) Ltd for a system developed to notify service providers of a mover’s change of address through a “one stop” interface.

• Marketing Campaign of the Year (sponsored by Triangle Management Services): Australia Post for its “Retail Post” programme of retail outlet modernisation and electronic point-of-sale system incorporation.

• Enterprise (sponsored by Spring): Poste Italiane S.p.A. (Italian Post), for its development of engineering processes leading to cost reductions and improvements in quality.

• Customer Service (sponsored by Posten Sverige AB): Empresa Brasileira de Correios e Telegrafos for a national programme in Brazil to deliver 115 million textbooks to public schools.

• Innovation (sponsored by Pitney Bowes): Innovation Affairs, the Netherlands, for its lightweight cardboard foldable letter weighing scale.

• Security: Postal Security Service of the Russian Post for detection, prevention and recording of postal security violations throughout the Russian Federation, and for the transfer of that knowledge and skills to other countries.

• e-Messaging (sponsored by ErgoIDP): AN Post, Republic of Ireland, for its “Electronic Business Exchange (eBX)” electronic bill presentation and payment system with a secure payment module.

More information on the judges and the Awards presentation can be found at www.mailawards.com

Triangle Contacts:

Neil Jackson or Colin Mitchell
on +44 (0) 8709 507900