Commendable effort but perhaps a little late

In the opinion of its Chairman Jean Paul Bailly: nearly 90 of the mail activity today is business! This mail is very localized and does not require a network close post offices. In fact, the Deutsche Post (DP) sorting centres serve twice more people - five times more for the Dutch position - that French sorting centres. Where the 862 million euros as the position is to invest in the deployment of 650 automatic sorters (and 800 million in training). Objective: to treat 90 of the mail in 24 hours and the balance to J 1 by 2010.

On the niche of business mail, competition is easier

But what policy apply post to the groups that the compete on its land since January last to the letters of more than 50 g and in full in 2010 As almost all of the mail just business, it will be easy (included UPS) competitors walk on beds of the position by installing giant automated sorting centres in major urban centres and by the collection. The station, which opened in 2005 its first mega of sorting in Gonesse, near Roissy (40 000 letters per hour over 33 000 m2), and then opened in Strasbourg, Nantes and Paris, will install one dozen others. Cost of this program called "Cape quality mail": EUR 3.4 billion between 2004 and 2010. Commendable effort but perhaps a little late.

"Late", this is the argument used by Jean-Paul Bailly to explain why he renounced the diversification in logistics: "too late and too costly." Remains to develop a network of 17 000 points of contact. By comparison, the Crédit Agricole, no. 2 in France, aligns that 6,000 agencies.

But these 17,000 agencies, that post is committed to maintain, generate little postal traffic and the significant fixed costs. It must find new resources, and for this to bring back the young customers into more attractive agencies. Clear: offer more products and services. In other words, other benefits that the single distribution of mail, and transform the former "financial services" in a real Bank. Hence the fight for the Banque Postale won Jean-Paul Bailly.

The Postal Bank to justify a bloated network of offices

But the other banks, private status, have brought the matter to Brussels for distortion of competition possible. They fear two categories of distortion. On the one hand, the assignment of employees, premises and expenses to the banking activity dependent on the postal activity. On the other, the transfer on the activity Bank to support the cost of pensions of the employees of the post and, hence, failure to comply with the legal banking ratios. To obviate to this criticism, it was recognized that the banking will be via an independent company, with its staff, paying his rent and its operating costs. And, of course, the pensions of the transferred employees are supported by the Postal Bank.

But some wonder: the post office "new generation" presented last year and which is gradually in the existing network (cost: EUR 770 million) economically justify the Banque Postale project Some argue that Yes. Others are skeptical that a new design and a few new services will be sufficient to boost customer visits, in ten years, went from 3.5 million to 2.5 million.