New Zealand Post

New Zealand Post Group
State-owned enterprise
Industry Postal service
Founded April 1, 1987 (1987-04-01)
Headquarters Wellington, New Zealand
Key people
 Jane Taylor (Chair)
David Walsh (CEO)
John van Woerkom (Acting CFO)
Products Mail service, retail, service centre, banking, air freight, ocean freight, 3PL warehousing, global logistics
Revenue Decrease NZ$1,485 million (fiscal year ending 30 June 2016)
Decrease NZ$150 million (2016)
Decrease NZ$141 million (2016)
Total assets Increase NZ$20,260 million (2016)
Total equity Increase NZ$1,293 million (2016)
Number of employees
 7,652 (2016)
Subsidiaries Kiwibank, CourierPost
Website www.nzpost.co.nz
Footnotes / references
New Zealand Post Group Annual Report 2016
A NZ Post box with slots for two classes of mail

New Zealand Post is a state-owned enterprise responsible for providing postal service in New Zealand.

History

New Zealand Post Office, a government agency, provided postal service in New Zealand until 1987. By the 1980s, however, economic difficulties made the government reconsider how it delivered postal services. For example, in 1987-1988 alone, the post lost NZ$50 million.[1] In 1985, the Labour Party government under Prime Minister David Lange launched a postal review, led by New Zealand Motor Corporation CEO Roy Mason and KPMG New Zealand Chairman Michael Morris, to find solutions to the post’s problems. In its final report, the team recommend transforming the postal service into three state-owned enterprises. The government in 1986 decided to follow the Mason-Morris review’s recommendations, and passed through parliament the State-Owned Enterprises Act, which corporatised several government agencies into state-owned enterprises.[2][3] The Post’s corporatisation was then completed with the 1987 passage of the Postal Services Act.[1][4] The two acts broke up the New Zealand Post Office into three corporations: the postal service firm New Zealand Post Limited, the savings bank Post Office Bank Limited, and the telecommunications company Telecom New Zealand Limited. Today, only New Zealand Post remains a state-owned enterprise, as PostBank and Telecom were privatised in 1989 and 1990, respectively.[5]

In its first year of operation, New Zealand Post turned the losses of previous years into a NZ$72 million profit.[6]

A year after the 1987 Post Office Act, the Lange Government declared its plan to fully privatise the post.[6] To prepare for privatisation, it decided to gradually reduce the post's monopoly. When it was corporatised in 1987, the New Zealand Post had monopoly for mail up to 500 grams and NZ$1.75 value. This was first reduced to $1.35, then $1, and finally 80 cents. The government also let the post downsize by closing a third of its locations. In 1991-1992, another review came out in support of the government's privatisation plan. However, by the end of 1993 the government abandoned its plan because of public opposition.[1]

New Zealand Post began its life with 1,244 post offices, later rebranded as PostShops. Of these 906 full post offices and 338 postal agencies, 600 post offices or bank branches were downsized or closed after government subsidies expired in February 1988. As of March 1998, there are 297 PostShops, and 705 Post Centres. However, there are now more outlets than before corporatisation, with 2,945 other retailers of postage stamps.

There was a reduction in the "real" price of postage, with a nominal drop of the postage rate from 45 cents to 40 cents in 1996, and restoration of the 45 cent rate in 2004. Since then the cost has risen to 50 cents in 2007, to 60 cents in 2010 and to 70 cents in 2012. On 1 July 2016 postage for standard letters will increase by 20 cents to $1.00 and Fastpost by 40 cents to $1.80.

Regulation

The Lange government's Postal Services Act 1987 reduced the monopoly of New Zealand Post to a limit of $1.75 and 500 grams. It was gradually reduced to 80 cents in December 1991 until the 1998 legislation took effect.

Since the deregulation of the postal sector, different postal operators can install mail collection boxes in New Zealand's streets.

The Postal Services Act 1998, passed by a National-New Zealand First coalition government, repealed the 1987 Act. The new law provides for any person to become a registered postal operator by applying to the Ministry of Economic Development (now Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment). Registration as a postal operator is compulsory for letters with postage less than 80 cents. Despite the Act, government regulation of the company still requires it to maintain certain minimum service levels, such as frequency of delivery.

New Zealand Post's exclusive right to be the 'sole operator' under the Act for the purposes of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) expired on 1 April 2003. For practical purposes, this meant another postal operator could theoretically issue stamps identified simply as 'New Zealand' with UPU membership. At around the same time, New Zealand Post adopted a fern-shaped identifying mark on its postage stamps, to be used on the majority of its future issues.

Since 1998 New Zealand Post has been legally obliged to deliver six days a week, but in 2013 the company outlined a plan to reduce this to three, in the wake of falling mail volumes.[7] Prime Minister John Key backed the idea, saying people "genuinely understand that the world is changing".[8]

New Zealand Post is legally obligated to maintain a certain service level under a deed of understanding it signed with the New Zealand government following the post’s corporatisation in 1987. According to the agreement, last amended in 2013, New Zealand Post has to operate at least 880 service points where basic postal services are available, and within this network 240 so-called “Personal Assistance Service Points,” where additional postal services, such as priority or parcel services, are available.[9] As of 30 June 2016, New Zealand Post maintained 987 service points, 511 which were personal assistance service points. In all, the post operated 882 retail locations in mid-2016.[10]

Operations

New Zealand Post headquarters in Wellington.

In 1989 New Zealand Post established CourierPost, a nationwide courier company designed to protect the company's parcel business from private competition. By 1998 CourierPost had become the number one player in the express courier market.[11]

In 1999 New Zealand Post launched a 50:50 joint operation with Blue Star. The new brand – Books and More – combined bookshop operations with the more traditional PostShop services. After acquiring 100% of the company in 2004 (by this stage the other 50% had been owned by WH Smith, owner of Whitcoulls bookshops) the entire operation was eventually sold to Paper Plus in 2005 and by 2006 all had been re-branded as Take Note.[12][13]

In 2002 New Zealand Post, as part of government policy, opened the bank Kiwibank Limited in the majority of its PostShop and Books and More (now Take Note) branches. Kiwibank is wholly owned by New Zealand Post through subsidiaries.[14]

In 2002 NZ Post bought The ECN Group which is now New Zealand Post's corporate venturing arm. Its purpose is to develop and market technologies and services that may replace or enhance New Zealand Post's traditional services. The ECN Group focuses on B2B messaging, business process management and systems integration, with a presence in New Zealand, Australia and Asia.[15][16]

New Zealand Post and Kiwibank shop at The Palms shopping centre in Shirley, Christchurch

In 2004 New Zealand Post announced the formation of Express Couriers Ltd (ECL), a 50:50 joint venture with DHL. In 2008 New Zealand Post and DHL commenced a similar joint venture in Australia called Parcel Direct Group Pty Limited (PDG). In 2012 New Zealand Post purchased DHL's holdings in these two companies.[17] ECL operates extensive courier and logistics services throughout New Zealand and encompasses the CourierPost, Pace, RoadStar and Contract Logistics brands.

New Zealand Post also owned 35% of IT firm Datacom Group until December 2012.[18]

New Zealand Post also runs the Electoral Enrolment Centre as a business unit under contract to the Minister of Justice. Its function is to compile and maintain all parliamentary electoral rolls.

The current Chair is Jane Taylor. The current board members are Michael Cullen, Murray Gribben, Carol Campbell, Alan Dunn, Philippa (Pip) Dunphy, Temuera Hall, Richie Smith, Richard Ian Leggat, Jacqueline (Jackie) Lloyd and David Willis.[19]

On 6 July 2010, New Zealand Post registered a 100 percent stake in Localist Limited, a local directory and social media site focussing initially on the Auckland region.[20] This holding was sold in 2014 in a management buyout led by the then CEO, Christine Domecq.[21]

By end of June 2011, New Zealand Post will have 910 postal outlets and 280 PostShop Kiwibank stores after shuts and downgrades more than a dozen branches nationwide. To compensate, the company was also planning to install new self-service kiosks similar to ATMs for handling letters, bill payments and parcels.[22]

One of the ways New Zealand Post is trying to make up for lost revenue due to fewer people sending letters is partnering with other companies. The Post on 3 April 2017 announced that it will work with fast food restaurant chain KFC to have postal drivers deliver KFC’s food to customers. The partnership will be piloted in the northern city of Tauranga, then expanded to more locations across New Zealand.[23]

Issue of stamps

New Zealand Post is responsible for deciding on stamp design and stamp production. Only New Zealand Post is allowed to “issue postage stamps that bear the words “New Zealand,” according to New Zealand law.[24] Each year the Post’s stamp business unit sets how many stamps it will issue and what the stamps will depict. The Post considers suggestions from New Zealand citizens and people around the world when deciding the subject of stamps. It also works with organizations to create commemorative stamps. For example, in 2014, the Post collaborated with Air New Zealand to issue a stamp for the airline’s 75th anniversary.[25]

Once a decision on the stamp’s subject is made, the Post asks at least two designers to draw a sketch, from which the final design is chosen. There are four things each stamp design must include: the stamp’s denomination, the words New Zealand, a fern, one of the country’s unofficial symbols, and a description of what the stamp depicts. Finally, the Post uses printers from around the world to print the stamps–it does not print them itself.[26][27]

New Zealand’s first stamp was issued by New Zealand Post’s predecessor, the Post Office Department of the New Zealand government, in 1855. The stamp depicted Queen Victoria, then the Queen of New Zealand, and was printed in one penny, two pence and one shilling denominations.[28]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Campbell, Robert (13 March 2002). Politics of Postal Transformation: Modernizing Postal Systems in the Electronic and Global World. McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0773523685.
  2. ↑ "State-Owned Enterprises Act 1986". Act No. 1986 124 of 18 December 1986. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  3. ↑ "The 1980s". New Zealand Government. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  4. ↑ "Post Office Act Repeal Act 1987". Act No. 1987 115 of 1 July 1987. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  5. ↑ "Brief country report: New Zealand" (PDF). Ecorys. 17 February 1998. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  6. 1 2 "History of New Zealand Post". New Zealand Post. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  7. ↑ "NZ Post to halve weekly deliveries". 3 News NZ. 29 January 2013.
  8. ↑ "NZ leads world in postal cuts". 3 New NZ. 28 February 2013.
  9. ↑ "Deed of Amendment and Restatement between New Zealand Post and the Crown" (PDF). New Zealand Post Group. 12 December 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  10. ↑ "New Zealand Post Group Annual Report 2016" (PDF). New Zealand Post Group. 25 August 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  11. ↑ CourierPost Profile. Web.archive.org (17 May 2000). Retrieved on 2013-07-16.
  12. ↑ Media release – 2 February 2004
  13. ↑ "Company History: Paper Plus Group". Archived from the original on 4 October 2009.
  14. ↑ "KIWIBANK LIMITED (1135352) Registered". Companies Office.
  15. ↑ "NZ Post buys ECN". NZ Herald. 5 November 2002.
  16. ↑ ECN Group Archived 19 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  17. ↑ New Zealand Post Positions for the Future | New Zealand Post. Nzpost.co.nz (25 June 2012). Retrieved on 2013-07-16.
  18. ↑ "Datacom Group Limited". Companies Office of New Zealand. 20 March 2014.
  19. ↑ "Meet our board".
  20. ↑ View All Details. Business.govt.nz. Retrieved on 16 July 2013.
  21. ↑ https://www.nzpost.co.nz/about-us/media-centre/media-release/new-zealand-post-sells-localist. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  22. ↑ Small, Vernon (13 May 2011). "Wellington branches among PostShops to close". The Dominion Post. Retrieved 11 September 2011.
  23. ↑ Eleanor Ainge Roy (4 April 2017). "Chicken run: New Zealand Post will start delivering KFC to beat mail slump". Dunedin: The Guardian. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  24. ↑ "Postal Services Act 1998". Act No. 1998 2 of 18 March 1998. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  25. ↑ "New Air NZ stamp ready to fly". Stuff.co.nz. 10 December 2014. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  26. ↑ "The stamp-making process". New Zealand Post. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  27. ↑ "Stamp production". New Zealand Post. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  28. ↑ "New Zealand's first postage stamps go on sale". New Zealand Government. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
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