The first reason is the development of technological competition

Raymond Redding, Director-General delegate of the position, Director of the post, President of Sofipost, commented on the developments awaiting transport and distribution of mail.

The maturity of a full liberalisation in 2009 will be decisive for La Poste mail activity

2006 is a much more important step that the figures would suggest. The first reason is the development of technological competition. The increase in the number of households with the Internet and the qualitative leap represented the ADSL led large companies develop their offers on the Internet. The second reason liberalization since January of all mail greater than 50 grams, placing 46 of our competition mail activity, threshold from which the competitors questioned the market segments in which they can enter. Total liberalisation planned for 2009 is still a possibility and not a certainty must await the end of the year to see more clear about European intentions. Some countries questioned the mode of financing of the universal service. In France, the regulatory authority Arcep will precisely define the terms of opening markets.

How do you think that will enter your first competition

The competition will develop in two ways. The first comes of local actors taking possession of niches in the mail or in specific activities such as the non-addressed mail or porting of press. Hundreds of micro-enterprises have already emerged in France within a same agglomeration or to carry the mail from professional communities such as lawyers or pharmacists. In most countries where these niches have developed, these operators have not occupied more than 1 of market for traditional mail, which is still of the order of 100 million euros of turnover.

The second type of competition will come from major European players. I consider that in five to ten years, there is more than 2-4 large companies mail to European coverage. Each historical position which will have the will to expand will do this either by organic development, external growth. In France, as elsewhere, I think that the position will be to establish, within two or three years, 1 or 2 distributors of alternative mail capable of distributing the mail in the national territory, at least there where it is profitable...

All of our major accounts have already contacted by competitors providing for benefits when value added. It is primarily of Deutsche Post and TNT are the most active, but also of Swiss Post, which explores in Lyon, or Belgian, this post in the North of the France. This approach is only a first step to study the French market to then establish themselves in the sorting and distribution.

The most threatened segment, France as everywhere, is that of enterprises producing large series of prétrié "industrial" mail, with a preferential targeting on direct marketing. In this case, the entrants are priority, as has been observed in Sweden and Germany, the most dense areas where collection, transmission and distribution are easier and less expensive.

In this context, what is the European strategy for the position

What is certain is that we do not want to remain a regional operator in Europe. At the same time it is not question of an aggressive towards our main counterparts and nevertheless competing attitude. We study in a careful manner changes in customer expectations and strategies of operators on the continent, as well as opportunities for settlements and extensions based on developments in markets and resources in the La Poste Group.

How you prepare for the opening of the French market

We prepare all the mail business, the parent, subsidiaries and our 180.000 employees, by changing our organizations, our structures and by providing new services because we have to fight against technological competition, which is inevitable, and the "legal" competition opening the possibility of other operators to establish themselves in France. But there is no dichotomy between new technologies and the mail since one enhances the other. Our Cape quality mail program, for which we spend the most important investment throughout our history, shows our willingness to invest in the mail to modernize the tool, improving the quality and control costs to competitors who would attack at lower prices. Behind the daily activity of our 100,000 factors, we manage a back-office insufficiently known, a heavy and complex logistics industry and a sophisticated service industry.

We are developing on the entire chain of value, before and after transport, paperless mail and new technologies facilitating the use of traditional mail, with a broader service offer and complete in positioning in addition on segments that are fully competitive. We respond to the expectation of businesses, which generate 85 of our turnover, and at the same time, we find a relay of growth. The fact that large companies are questioning their communication strategy legitimate for us is to make offers beyond the only transport and distribution of mail. We want to double in two or three years this activity that today represents only 2 of our turnover.