Left to right: Luca Palermo, Nexive; Giuseppe Marchica, SINAGI; and Armando Abbiati, SNAG
Private postal operator Nexive has signed a three-year agreement with SINAGI, the National Union of Italian Newsagents, and SNAG, the National Independent Newsagents’ Union, to potentially offer parcel and mail drop-off and collection services at 12,000 newsagents throughout Italy.
The deal will help to promote the business of newsagents in Italy by offering more advanced and efficient services at convenient locations, while simultaneously offering Nexive customers more flexible hours and days than those of traditional post offices.
Since 2001, more than a third of the total newsagents’ kiosks and shops in Italy have closed. The project wants to help owners rethink their business model to overcome the crisis affecting the industry and develop activities with added value that go beyond the typical business of distributing newspapers and magazines.
The agreement also focuses on innovating the traditional postal service by offering concrete answers to the needs of the population, public administrations and businesses at a time of increasing disinvestment in postal services throughout Italy.
The deal is an important move for Nexive as it will enable the operator to offer ordinary and registered letter and parcel sending services to the public, previously only available to business clients.
Luca Palermo, CEO of Nexive, said, “At a time in which public service is decreasing at a local level, it is fundamental to create a system and develop new and original ways to provide neighborhood services for the benefit of the population: the partnership with SINAGI and SNAG arises with this particular goal.
“The ‘In zona’ project capitalizes on the constant commitment of Nexive to lead innovation in the postal industry thanks to the integration between physical and digital, and alongside the newsagents it also involves stationers, tobacconists and other small local businesses.
“To date we have over 1,400 outlets throughout the country where it is possible to send and receive letters and parcels in a more and more convenient and flexible way.”
Giuseppe Marchica, secretary general of SINAGI, said, “The goal of SINAGI is to promote the function and role of the traditional newsagent’s shop and become, to all effects, the center of services for the residents of the area, that is, a multifunctional location for the spread of information and services to the public.
“In this framework, the relationship with partners operating in the sector of postal services, like Nexive, enables all the newsagents to become the ‘neighborhood post office’, where residents can go to send and receive mail and parcels, and pick up their online purchases.
“Basically, this cooperation with Nexive satisfies our idea of the newsagent shops as real service centers for the city and its residents, and this cooperation becomes a fundamental starting point.”
The three organizations will engage newsagents interested in participating in the initiative over the coming months, and will cooperate to provide training and support for the development of new solutions and public services.
November 15, 2016
