A Few things to consider !

[postslippete]

Private equity asset stripping Vs turning the business around?

Private investors buy businesses to generate returns and Kretinsky doesn't really have a reputation as a smash and grab merchant. The onus is really on turning RM around to generating big profits on parcels with its reduced letter obligations.

And if EP group can't make RM profitable? RM will be much harder to dispose of because of the USO and government scrutiny with its "golden share" arrangement. I don't think any government is going to make it easy for RM to get rid of letters completely. And I don't think the company wants rid of letters completely either because they generate significant revenue. Think about it. If RM became just another glorified parcel courier, they would be competing head on with the gig economy which is a tough battle when your competitors don't have the same obligations or workforce structure.

But GLS is more sellable and obviously good, profitable businesses are much easier to sell than a heavily, regulated ones. I do feel like this is more of a 5-10 year turnaround than a quick flip.

[goldy2007]

Private equity asset stripping Vs turning the business around?

Private investors buy businesses to generate returns and Kretinsky doesn't really have a reputation as a smash and grab merchant. The onus is really on turning RM around to generating big profits on parcels with its reduced letter obligations.

And if EP group can't make RM profitable? RM will be much harder to dispose of because of the USO and government scrutiny with its "golden share" arrangement. I don't think any government is going to make it easy for RM to get rid of letters completely. And I don't think the company wants rid of letters completely either because they generate significant revenue. Think about it. If RM became just another glorified parcel courier, they would be competing head on with the gig economy which is a tough battle when your competitors don't have the same obligations or workforce structure.

But GLS is more sellable and obviously good, profitable businesses are much easier to sell than a heavily, regulated ones. I do feel like this is more of a 5-10 year turnaround than a quick flip.

You only have to look at how long this particular uso reform has taken

The transformation to owner driver model would be a massively tough sell to the government or public

The redundancy costs would be massive

[Valentina@1]

I think he’ll eventually sell to Amazon

[goldy2007]

I think he’ll eventually sell to Amazon

Not sure huge swathes of the country are financially viable to Amazon


Which is why we end up taking so many of their packets

[twoloops]

Surely the failure of DM26 would help anyone looking for a way out?

[A2B]

Surely the failure of DM26 would help anyone looking for a way out?

With a basic redundancy package if you're lucky?

The days of large redundancy payouts from RM are a thing of the past

[postslippete]

I think he’ll eventually sell to Amazon

While RM still has a USO delivering letters and nationwide obligations with the government holding a 'golden share' that feels like a really hard sell to me. Amazon already attracts scrutiny over its market dominance and they don't want anything to do with a legacy workforce that delivers letters or parcels that are not cost effective to rural areas.

So Amazon would never want the whole thing. However, I think they would certainly be interested in GLS as its a model that they are very familiar with

[Mr Rush]

The onus is really on turning RM around to generating big profits on parcels with its reduced letter obligations.
[...]
But GLS is more sellable and obviously good, profitable businesses are much easier to sell than a heavily, regulated ones.

And what if profitability hinges on turning the job into a gig? That's why GLS has been profitable - it's RM's Hermes in Europe. All the national carriers set up or acquired parcel courier operations outside their own countries in the 90s which subsidised their domestic operations (RM with GLS, Deutsche Post with DHL, La Poste with DPD, etc). The bar on cross-subsidisation within IDS is a complete artificiality with the purpose of bringing us to this point.

[postslippete]

GLS was built as a parcel courier network in Europe whereas RM still has the USO, a legacy workforce and political scrutiny attached to it. Turning RM into a full gig-style operation would be a massive political, industrial and financial task.

And I dont think the cross-sub argument is quite as black and white as some make out. If GLS profits had simply been used indefinitely to prop up RM without reform then you would probably just end up weakening both businesses in the long term.

For me, the bigger question is whether management used those profitable years wisely. RM had years of strong profits after privatisation and yet we still ended up with constant revisions, failed restructures, recruitment/retention problems and ongoing inefficiencies. That's why I'm sceptical when everything gets pinned solely on the USO or the workforce.

[WBAPOST]

My first post after reading this forum for a couple of years now but feel compelled to say something to Mr Walsh on this DM26 rubbish

The union of which he seems to be a major mouthpiece seems in my opinion to make very dramatic statements
He was determined to get equalisation he failed miserably
They got in to bed with the EP group very early saying the old RM board were holding back the company and the new lot were trustworthy another major mistake they have backed themselves in to a corner that they can’t get out of
Failed on getting overtime rates sorted again he was determined
Promised more Saturday’s off again failed
I will lose my walk under this new method back to being cover no more Saturday’s off for me operational needs.


No magic tree he says well the back room guys are getting good bonuses another failed statement

Asking us all to vote on something that has no detail both the management and union don’t know how it will work
Our Com has said we will just see how it goes (we’re one of the new trial offices)

Now he says vote yes as there is no other option in my opinion he’s failed again.

If the union is to survive the guys at the top must go now and be replaced with people who actually listen and see what’s happening
In the offices
Vote no it’s our only option.

[hero22]

My first post after reading this forum for a couple of years now but feel compelled to say something to Mr Walsh on this DM26 rubbish

The union of which he seems to be a major mouthpiece seems in my opinion to make very dramatic statements
He was determined to get equalisation he failed miserably
They got in to bed with the EP group very early saying the old RM board were holding back the company and the new lot were trustworthy another major mistake they have backed themselves in to a corner that they can’t get out of
Failed on getting overtime rates sorted again he was determined
Promised more Saturday’s off again failed
I will lose my walk under this new method back to being cover no more Saturday’s off for me operational needs.


No magic tree he says well the back room guys are getting good bonuses another failed statement

Asking us all to vote on something that has no detail both the management and union don’t know how it will work
Our Com has said we will just see how it goes (we’re one of the new trial offices)

Now he says vote yes as there is no other option in my opinion he’s failed again.

If the union is to survive the guys at the top must go now and be replaced with people who actually listen and see what’s happening
In the offices
Vote no it’s our only option.

[A2B]

Saw a post online earlier from the CWU, should have saved it because I can't find it now but I believe the tag line was....

Our workers deserve more time off (an extra Saturday) and DM26 will enable this.

To get the extra Saturday aren't we required to work longer days? There's no "extra time off" just a massaging of the hours we already work!

Incidentally we did have an extra Saturday off but that was taken away and as mentioned many times before didn't we "aspire" to 35hrs being full time hours many moons past?