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Postplan plans PO blitz Postplan's
sack burden
• Express courier company Interlink has axed its lossmaking subsidiary Postplan, saying it "cannot fund it indefinitely in the absence of a commitment from the Government to reconsider the Post Office letter monopoly".
Interlink, which bought Postplan in March for £180,000, has lost around £330,000 on the venture. Chairman Richard Gabriel says the London-based carrier was losing £25,000 a month.
About 32 of Postplan's 40 employees will lose their jobs, although managing director Martin Peacock is to join Interlink. Postplan was running seven vans and 14 motorbikes in the capital, and had been campaigning hard to be allowed to set up a national service following a relaxation of the Post Office's letter monopoly.
Gabriel says the Postplan name is being retained and the service might be reinstated later. "It does not end our commitment to having the monopoly ended," he says.
Postplan hit the headlines early last spring when it vowed to break the Post Office with a £25 million expansion throughout the UK (CM 9 March 1988). Lee Myers, general manager, said Postplan would raise the money from the City before taking on 6,000 new staff. Late last year Peacock was still hopeful that his plan — to win 80% of the Post Office's forecast growth business — would be accepted and acted upon by the Government.
The demise of Postplan is the second major setback for Gabriel, who as a motorbike courier entrepreneur set up his parcels company 10 years ago. Another of his courier services went bust in 1981.
Interlink is setting up a 100franchisee parcels subsidiary in West Germany and wants to expand further into other European countries.