Posten Norden, the Swedish-Danish postal group, today unveiled plans to re-name itself as PostNordand confirmed it is looking at acquisitions in e-commerce and logistics to diversify further from
the declining mail business.At today’s Annual General Meeting, shareholders re-elected all the board members and Fritz H.Schur was re-elected as Chairman of the Board. Shareholders also approved a motion to change thecompany name to PostNord AB.
President and CEO Lars Idermark told the AGM that the Nordic communications and logisticscompany was well-positioned and well-managed but its market situation faced various challenges,including declining volumes and increasing competition following full European postalliberalisation.
Outlining the future strategy, the CEO, who took over from Lars Nordstrom at the start ofthis year, stressed the company wanted to strengthen itself for the future while continuing tomanage costs strictly. Globalisation and e-commerce were “opportunities for growth”, he stated.
“We’ll do this by actively continuing to develop the underlying business. That is, morebusiness with existing and new customers. We will demonstrate ability to innovate and grow in newareas where we see opportunities to develop healthy and profitable business. We will engage inpartnerships or make acquisitions where we see that we can strengthen our offering or our marketposition. We will be responsive to our customers’ needs and aim to exceed their expectations. Withthe Nordic region as our domestic market, we will be the leading player in communications andlogistics in northern Europe,” he declared.
In the communications field, Posten Norden planned to add further new services such as theSwedish direct marketing campaign with Google and the Danish secure e-mail service, Idermarksaid.Letter volumes would continue to decline due to digitization and business diversification wasthe way to respond to this decline.
“In the logistics area, we want to grow at least in line with the market and we intend tomove into new service areas, but also take part in the ongoing consolidation in the market byacquisition as an opportunity. We are also positioned as the strongest business partner fore-commerce in the Nordic region, with a wide range of services to simplify e-merchant’s dailylives,” he commented.
The general meeting established financial targets for the parent company through 2013. Theparent company’s return on sales should amount to 10 per cent over an economic cycle and theequity-assets ratio to at least 35 per cent. At least 40 per cent of net profit will be distributedto the shareholders.
Posten Norden was formed through the merger of Post Danmark and Sweden’s Posten. The grouphas sales of some SEK 42 billion (€4.7 billion) and over 40,000 employees.
