“Our growth was higher than the budgeted 13%. We want higher volumes on the segment of addressed mail under 50 grams,” Marius Bene, general manager of PostMaster told ZF.
Romanian state-run postal company Posta Romania had been the only operator allowed to carry mail under 50 grams until early 2013, but has since lost the monopoly of this market estimated at 400 million items of mail and is now competing with foreign postal operators.
Another competitor trying to get a slice of this market besides the Austrian Post Group is French state-owned postal company La Poste, which bought 60% in local company Inbox Marketing.
To position itself so as to be able to take advantage of this opportunity, the Austrian Post Group first bought into PostMaster in 2011 and then bought the rest of the company in November 2012 from founders Mihai Balaj and Mihai Preotescu (14.8% each) and Radu Constantin Potolea (44.4%).
The new owner appointed Marius Bene general manager at the end of last year, replacing Mihai Preotescu and Mihai Balaj who had been running it together. Bene had previously worked as sales manager for Transylvania and Moldavia with Cosmote Romania, as business development director with Vodafone Romania and regional manager with TNT.
“We invested in equipment this year, in two franking machines that cost EUR250,000. We are getting ready for high volumes,” Bene said.
PostMater provides postal services, such as addressed mailing (individually addressed mail) and unaddressed mail delivery (leaflets, flyers, catalogs, newspapers), geomarketing services and database management. The unaddressed mail delivery market is estimated at 800 million items.
Its most important customers are retailers, which promote their products via flyers and catalogs, and include Cora, Metro and IKEA, according to its corporate website.
PostMaster was established by Mihai Preotescu, Mihai Balaj and Radu Potolea in 2007.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)