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International Distribution Services (IDS), the UK parent company for Royal Mail, Parcelforce and GLS, is to see its third new CEO in as many years.
IDS’s announcement comes amid a downturn in results which saw the 507-year-old service make a £1bn loss for 2022 and weather 18 days of strikes by postal workers.
Royal Mail saw revenues drop by 4% year-on-year in its first quarter, to £1.8bn.
Now charged with ensuring the postal service meets its “full potential”, German executive Martin Seidenberg, CEO of GLS, group’s international parcels network, is the new group CEO and he will in turn be in charge of appointing CEOs for Royal Mail and the seat he vacates at GLS.
Mr Seidenberg will be paid a base salary of £700,000, which is a £528,000 rise on his previous pay as the boss of GLS. His appointment is said to be on merit: he oversaw rising profits and revenue for GLS, said IDS. He will be based in London as taxed as a UK resident.
More than 115,000 postal workers walked out between September and December as part of the dispute for better pay and conditions.
The action threw delivery offices across the UK into disarray, with Royal Mail declaring that the knock-on cost totalled £1m for every day lost. In May, the year-long dispute with the Communication Workers’ Union was finally resolved.
Mr Seidenberg said: “It is a privilege to be appointed to lead IDS and ensure that both Royal Mail and GLS reach their full potential. We may have challenges ahead, but through transformation and working together with our people, we can undoubtedly have a bright future.
“We will remain focused on quality, profitable growth and margin development to thrive in the current challenging macro economic environment.”
The Times, writing on the appointment of Mr Seidenberg, says the appoinment of the former Deutsche Post DH “means that in its ten years since its controversial privatisation, the group has yet to have a Briton as chief executive”.
