Beijing boost for Royal Mail
17th August 2012
Royal Mail has announced a new partnership with leading Chinese express firm ZJS. CWU has welcomed the news, saying it "could help to increase revenues, protect jobs and the universal service".
Royal Mail announced this week that its European division,
Global Logistic Services (GLS), is launching a partnership with
China's ZJS, to offer a fully tracked, business-to-business
parcel delivery service from China to Europe, which will be trading
within China as Euro Business Parcel.
As letter volumes decline, Royal Mail Group is focused on
generating profitable revenue streams in parcels, an activity
which, in the last financial year, handled 1.2 billion items and
generated £4.2bn in revenues - 48 per cent of the Royal Mail
Group total.
And, with China being the biggest exporter of goods to the
European Union - on its own accounting for 17.3 per cent of the
market - hopes are high that the new partnership, the first to
offer a three-to-five day China to Europe delivery service, will
grow revenues still further.
Reacting to the news, CWU deputy general secretary
Dave Ward said: "We've been saying for
several years that Royal Mail must adopt a more innovative business
strategy - if it doesn't then others will, as has been shown
time and time again. We're glad to see the company take this on
board with this initiative.
"Let's hope this new partnership proves successful and
generates new revenues which can protect jobs and secure the
UK's universal delivery service," he added.
RMG managing director international Mark
Thompson said that the alliance "presents us with a
great opportunity to link our operations for the benefit of Chinese
businesses exporting to Europe." His Chinese counterpart
Chen Xianbo, ZJS president, added: "This
cooperation now enables us to meet our customers' demands to
extend our high-quality service to major European countries."
GLS delivers high-quality parcels, logistics and express
services throughout Europe. It is one of the biggest ground-based
parcel service providers in Europe. GLS employs 13,400 people and
covers 42 European countries and states through wholly owned and
partner companies, such as Parcelforce Worldwide in the UK, and is
globally connected via contractual agreements.
Established in 1994, ZJS Express has an extensive network covering more than 2,000 villages, towns and cities throughout the People's Republic of China. The collaboration enables ZJS Express to build on its weekly 7-day collection domestic offering to enable its customers to reach European partners with express services. ZJS Express employs around 20,000 people in over 3,000 locations.
