The Polish state postal operator Poczta Polska plans to lay off 2,400 workers as part of a largeredundancy programme to be continued in 2010, according to the country’s media.
In the first half year of 2009, the company already cut 1,800 jobs, the Polish News Bulletinservice reported. The Polish trade unions have been informed about the decision and asked themanagement to justify the dismissals. Poczta Polska employed about 100,400 people in 2007.
Andrzej Polakowski, the president of Poczta Polska, claimed that the lay-offs would help thecompany to save ZL 10 million (€2.45 million) during this period. In addition, Polakowski hasconfirmed plans to sell parts of the company’s fixed property worth ZL 80 million (€19.6 million)to use this money for further investment.
In the first six months of this year, Poczta Polska made a gross profit of ZL 220 million(€53.8 million) with turnover amounting to ZL 3.6 billion (€880.7 million). According to thecompany’s expectations, the gross loss in 2009 should not exceed ZL 185 million (€45.3 million).
During the last ten years, mail volumes in Poland have increased considerably. However, moremodernisation is needed due to the low level of transit time performance.
In addition, Poczta Polska has been facing competition from smaller postal companies emergingin the last few years. In 2006, a competing postal operator InPost started rolling out a network ofretail outlets offering letter services to individuals and business customers. InPost has alreadyestablished 800 retail outlets in 200 Polish cities and towns.
Poczta Polska lost one of its biggest customers, TP (Polish Telecom), to its Krakow-basedrival. InPost, the first independent postal operator, belongs to the capital group INTEGER.pl, amarket leader in distribution of addressed and non-addressed advertising mail. INTEGER.pl has 75regional branches, 15 central warehouses, 42 regional warehouses and 91 trans-shipment points, withInteger couriers delivering parcels in more than 500 cities in Poland. The group employs 7300people.
Poczta Polska focuses on national postal operations and postal financial services. On thegrowing Polish express and parcel market, it plays only a minor role with a rather weak position.After Poland joined the EU, international shipment volumes in this sector increased significantlyand now make up almost a quarter of the market.
Over the last few years, international companies acquired Polish companies with DHL being theclear market leader, followed by UPS. Other major competitors of Poczta Polska in the express andparcel sector are TNT, DPD and GLS, while two leading Polish courier companies are OPEK andSiodemka. The B2B share of Poczta Polska is relatively low as business customers extensively usecompeting courier companies due to better service quality.
