cross-border mail market, 2006
Market volume: €10.4 billion
annual reports for USPS, Royal Mail, La Poste,
SPI and TNT, additional calculations and estimates
Well positioned abroad
We transport mail across borders, serve the domestic markets of other countries and, apart from carrying mail, also provide special services. We serve business customers in key national mail markets, including the USA, the Netherlands, the UK, Spain and France. In the Netherlands, we realigned our product portfolio in the reporting period in response to the fierce price competition in the direct marketing segment. In Japan, we stepped up our co-operation with Yamato Holding in the direct marketing and unaddressed delivery sectors.
The global market volume for cross-border mail was approximately €10 billion – more or less the same as in the previous year. Although competition has become even tougher, we sustained a market share of 14%. We thus defended our position on a par with the United States Postal Service – amongst other things, by increasing the volume of mail from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the USA.
Expertise in information exchange
Every day, companies need to process large quantities of information as well as transfer documents and data. Managing business processes is becoming steadily more complex – especially in the international business arena. Our subsidiary Williams Lea specialises in the management of digital and printed information. Its principal activities are photocopying, printing, mailroom management and office services; other services include the 
outsourcing of transaction printing, document management and the end-to-end processing of customer correspondence. We develop individual solutions that enable our customers to attend more closely to their clients and operate more profitably. Such solutions can embrace the outsourcing of services or realignment of business processes. Moreover, effective document management reduces the risk of records getting lost.
