Introduction:
The company that owns Royal Mail has named a new chief executive, who will work to improve the company’s Martin Seidenberg profitability after a protracted labor dispute last year contributed to the group’s £748 million deficit.
Finding a new Royal Mail CEO will be the first item on Martin Seidenberg’s to-do list as head of International Distribution Services (IDS), two months after Simon Thompson announced his resignation following a two-year legal dispute with the postal employees‘ union.
Thompson is not legally replaced by the previous CEO of GLS, an Amsterdam-based package transportation firm that IDS has controlled since 2020, but the position he is currently filling was made possible by a restructuring of senior positions.
After working at Deutsche Post DHL for 15 years, Seidenberg, 50, joined GLS in 2015. He has been on the IDS board since April 2021. When he starts the post in August, he will get a basic salary of £700,000 per year and relocate to the UK.
He joins the battle at a trying moment for the logistics behemoth as Royal Mail suffered a £1 billion deficit in its most recent fiscal year that was attributed to strike activity and subpar productivity. IDS reported a loss of £748 million for the year ending on March 26 due to poor performance, down from a profit of £577 million for the same time the previous year.
Now, Seidenberg must choose the leaders of GLS and Royal Mail. Thompson assumed the position in early 2021 and will leave it in October. A contentious conflict with the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and challenging appearances before MPs who accused him of “incompetence or cluelessness” have marked his tenure.
Martin Seidenberg to Start a New Role at Royal Mail:
Martin Seidenberg to Start a New Role at Royal Mail (Image Source: linkedin.com)
Workers agreed to a salary agreement earlier this month that may help put an end to the pay conflict, but Seidenberg still has to heal fences with the CWU and win back the confidence of postal workers.
In the first quarter, Royal Mail delivered 10% fewer packages and 8% fewer letters, resulting in a 4% decrease in overall income. GLS had a 7.4% increase in revenue.
IDS said that because letter volumes had decreased 30% since before the epidemic, the government and Ofcom must take “immediate action” to alter their service obligations.
The business has maintained for a while that it cannot meet the universal service commitment, which calls on it to offer a “one price goes anywhere” postal service to any address in the UK six days a week. In June of this year, the government stopped Royal Mail from discontinuing Saturday delivery of mail.
