TNT Post Italia, PostNL’s Italian subsidiary, has extended its network with an agreement toenable customers to collect registered mail in Buffetti shops across the country.
Under the commercial agreement, the partnership will start in the second half of July 2011 in aselection of Italian towns with the aim to gradually extend the service to the entire Buffettinetwork of 800 retail outlets. The Buffetti Group sells office products, services and solutions, tobusiness customers, mostly SMEs and professionals.
Following a very successful experiment, which begun in January 2011 in some Buffetti shops inTurin and Bologna, the initiative will take off in the second half of July 2011, offering acollection service for TNT Post registered mail being held at Buffetti shops in some Italian towns,among others in Rome and Genova. At present about 20% of TNT Post registered mail is not deliveredfirst-time and ends up being held for collection in Italy. The agreement makes it possible forcustomers to call in at convenient times to their nearest Buffetti shop to pick up the TNT Postregistered letter.
For the future, in addition to expanding the initiative to other shops across Italy, thepartnership between the two companies may well be strengthened, with a view to satisfying privateand business needs, PostNL announced.
“Buffetti is a highly valuable and innovative presence on the Italian business distributionscene. We are pleased to have them as partners and to jointly develop new innovative postal networksolutions to offer our more advanced services,” declared Luca Palermo, CEO of TNT Post Italia. “Thanks to our common objectives and vision regarding the needs of business clients in Italy, wehave managed to set up this project that is unique in Europe. Right from the first trials, theinnovative collaboration was warmly welcomed by SMEs, professionals and citizens. The partnershipwith the Buffetti Group will speed up reaching our objective of total coverage of Italianterritory.”
“It has always been Buffetti’s aim to simplify the daily tasks of businesses and professionals.The agreement with TNT Post is a chance for us to respond in an innovative way to the needs of ourclients who are increasingly looking for a single source of office administration services. We aredelighted to be able to offer customers the possibility of coming to us for postal services, whileguaranteeing a reliable, extensive and efficient network,” explained Ermanno Paini, GeneralDirector of Buffetti Group.
TNT Post Italia, the main private challenger to Poste Italiane with about 5% of the market byvolume, distributes mail to over 65% of Italian households and aims to cover 80% by 2015. It hasabout 2,000 employees, 300 direct and indirect branches and a customer base of over 10,000businesses, organisations and public sector bodies.
At the start of this year, the small unaddressed mail business, RSM Italia, with revenues of €38million, was sold off. TNT Post Italia, whose revenues are not disclosed, now focuses on addressedmail and mailroom activities.
Buffetti Group, a Telecom Italia subsidiary until 2005, leads the Italian market fordistribution of office products, services and solutions, chiefly aimed at professionals, tradesmen,retailers, SMEs and – recently – a growing number of homeworkers. Over the past ten years, Buffettihas become a point of reference for retailers, hoteliers, restaurateurs, clothes shops andcompanies with its own management software, thanks also to the consulting and assistance offered byits branches throughout Italy.
