News

Redmail, a joint venture between TNT Post and Styria Media Group AG, will pull out of the Austrian mail market to focus on the regional delivery of newspapers as part of TNT’s new five-year strategy “Vision 2015”, TNT claims that the recently introduced Postal Act had contributed to this decision. The Postal Act introduces a mandatory license system for postal services with regard to all mail items up to 50g.



TNT said the refocus of Redmail's activities is in line with its strategy to manage its European Mail Networks business (EMN) through partnerships and sale and withdraw from some European mail markets, as announced during the company’s Analyst Meeting on 3 December 2009.



Although TNT claims that the new Austrian postal law that will come into force on 1 January 2011 is the main reason for the pullout, the Redmail management admits that the negative effects of the global financial crisis and reduced advertising spending further worsened the situation. “Under these conditions, we cannot justify further considerable costs for investment. Therefore, we will concentrate on our key competences in future,” said Redmail managing director Klaus Schauer.



UNI Post & Logistics research has shown this is a familiar pattern with deregulation, and that the financial crisis and reduced mail volumes mean that postal deregulation in Europe is doomed to fail and will only result social dumping. In the case of Redmail, 50 fulltime workers will lose their jobs