Service-oriented - Die Schweizerische Post

tract for subsidiaries of Swiss Post guarantees
them good working conditions in the
future too. At the same time, by transferring
PostBus to the public company, we
are creating the basis for PostBus Switzerland
AG to gear its activities more closely
to the needs of the market and thus
remain the number one provider of roadbased
public passenger transport.
In the autumn, the Board of irectors
gave the go-ahead to implement the
Ymago project. Swiss Post will conduct
an internal reorganization of its post offices
in 2007. ( 8) By the end of 2008
we aim to set up 200 new agencies.
These measures will help us respond even
faster and better to customer behaviour
and make our network more efficient.
Following completion of the project by
the end of 2008, Swiss Post expects to
improve its annual results to the tune of
somewhat more than 50 million francs.
Ymago is expected to result in between
400 and 500 jobs being cut over the
course of two years. We do not anticipate
that Ymago will lead to dismissals, in line
with previous reorganizations.
In ecember 2006, Swiss Post signed an
agreement on the future of the Swiss
Post pension fund with the Communications
and transfair unions. In particular,
it sets out the transition from a defined
benefit to a defined contribution plan.
Swiss Post is committed to financing the
pension fund within the bounds of the
financially possible and within the confines
of the Federal Council’s decisions
regarding appropriation of profit. As the
Confederation had not fully financed the
Swiss Post pension fund when it was established
on 1 January 2002, this course
was the one taken. Around one billion
francs will be channelled into the pension
fund from profit.
The monopoly limit ( 4, 5) for letters
was lowered to 100 grams on 1 April. A
further section of our core postal business
is thus open to competition. Thanks
not least to our high quality and the
good price-performance ratio, the impact
on our business has so far been slight.
The residual monopoly in the letters market
remains, in our opinion, the most
efficient way of funding the basic service.
Further deregulation steps will call into
question the present quality of supply
and the current level of service and
should be delayed until the political authorities
have clarified the future scope
Annual Report | Service-oriented | Group
of the basic service and how it will be
funded.
The acquisition of the German-based
GHP Group will strengthen our position
in the future-proof markets for customer
loyalty programmes and dialogue marketing.
GHP will continue to operate under
its own name.
Our MailSource subsidiary acquired several
companies in the USA, France and
Switzerland and thus expanded its new
business to include internal postal services,
scanning and archiving for companies.
Group results
In 2006, we successfully implemented our
strategy: Group profit in 2006 of 837
million francs was 3.2 percent or 26 million
francs higher than the previous
year’s result of 811 million francs. All segments
contributed to the positive result,
albeit to varying degrees. We were again
able to increase the value of the company
as a whole by 532 million francs (2005:
532 million francs).
Operating income came to 7,895 million
francs (2005: 7,499 million francs). The
“ Sending a letter from
Gossau (Canton St Gallen)
to St Antönien costs more
than the franked amount.”
Peter Mürner
PostMail controller, Berne
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