Vilkinson for world
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INTERNATIONAL exs parcels service and an tronic mail network are first expected products of :•ral Express's acquisition .ex Wilkinson.
an exclusive interview CM, Lex Wilkinson [aging director Colin Mills explained that the addiof an international service :he company's product ;e is the highest priority iwing the takeover late in lary, (CM, February 1). tilkinson has been hand
Federal's UK deliveries ide London and Matchessince last summer and is r developing plans to link Nig,htline next-day dcry service to Federal's Dpcan and trans-Atlantic ices.
We want to be able to • our customers an interonal service," Millbank earns from Wilkinson and new parent organisation trying to make the two nesses' computerised doentation and tracking sysmore compatible so that international service can tatted soon.
secondary aim is to offer customers access to Fed's Zapmail facsimile (Fax) ismission service before end of this year. "I don't know how big that market is or how important a step it is, but it is not diverting us from the main focus of attacking the international parcels market," says Millbanks.
Zapmail offers superior document reproduction to that of other fax systems and is already installed at Federal's UK office at Feltham, Middlesex, near Heathrow airport. Another is going into a Federal business centre being opened near the London Law Courts.
It is to be linked gradually into the Lex Wilkinson system as British Telecom capacity becomes available to switch signals transmitted by satellite into the British land network.
Two terminals arc being installed at the Wilkinson hub centre at Nuneaton and at two other depots as a priority, as these will be able to receive trans-Atlantic documents until midnight in time for 9.30am deliveries by Nightlinc.
Extension of Zapmail to the rest of the depot network will offer document reception until 6am for 9.30am delivery. Millbanks hopes to be installing terminals in the regional depots before the end of this year.
Federal, which was started from scratch 13 years ago and handled S2 million worth of business last year, has permission to use the Lex name for two years.
According to Millbanks, there is no hurry to change the name and Federal is not insisting on inflicting its name on a hostile market.
But he says there has been no resistance either from customers or staff to the takeover, only optimism that Wilkinson's service will be enhanced.
Both companies have pursued enlightened, but different employment policies, offering on-the-job training, grievance procedures, known at Federal as "Guaranteed fair treatment", and employee shareholding.
Millhanks believes that Federal's approach is superior in some respects, simply because of as subtlety.