European post offices freshen up, turn into shops and get mobile

European postal operators are revitalising their retail networks with redesigned new looks, converting them into modern shops and even making them mobile, according to executives from An Post, Correos and Lithuania Post. The challenges and opportunities for post office retail networks were highlighted by various speakers in different sessions of the Leaders in Logistics Post & Parcel Europe conference in Madrid last week. Debbie Byrne, managing director of An Post Retail, explained how the Irish postal group is modernising its large post office network with a major re-brand to meet changing customer needs while retaining its social commitment to rural communities across the country. The company has renegotiated postmaster contracts from a fixed to a volume-based variable basis, closed 150 unviable small branches and is encouraging ‘co-location’ of other branches with retailers such as supermarkets.