In response to lower-than-expected demand for same-day parcel delivery, Swiss Post has announced it will discontinue its notime subsidiary at the end of September 2025.
The two companies launched a consultation process on May 8 to limit the impact of staff reductions and Swiss Post will offer “alternative solutions to the business customers affected wherever possible”.
Johannes Cramer, head of logistics services and member of Swiss Post executive management, explained, “Together with notime, we have examined various options for making the service profitable. For example, Swiss Post has repeatedly analyzed different price and cost structures. However, the fixed costs are too high to make operation of a same-day specialist financially viable. The service has remained a niche product and there are no signs of a trend reversal with regard to demand for same-day services.”
Since 2018, Swiss Post and its subsidiary notime have been offering same-day delivery in the conurbations around various cities in German-speaking Switzerland and Western Switzerland. From the outset, however, few customers have made use of this option and there is a lack of willingness to pay for the service, according to Swiss Post.
Swiss Post will be contacting all the approximately 20 business customers who make use of same-day deliveries from notime. The same-day services offered directly by Swiss Post to business and private customers will not be affected.
An expected 143 full-time equivalent roles in German-speaking Switzerland and Western Switzerland are expected to go with the closure of notime.
Cramer added, “The planned steps are difficult for us. In the longer term, however, loss-making operations would not be responsible from a business perspective. We will closely support the impacted employees and offer them the best possible assistance. We are making every effort to offer as many employees as possible continuing employment at Swiss Post.”
For employees who cannot be offered continuing employment in the event of closure, Swiss Post is planning to draw up a redundancy plan together with its social partners. The consultation process will continue until May 30, 2025 and Swiss Post confirmed staff at notime can take this opportunity to make proposals about how the planned job cuts could be prevented, how to reduce the number of redundancies or how to mitigate the consequences.
In related news, UK-based Cartor Security Printers, part of Spectra Systems Corporation, has been awarded a five-year contract to produce definitive postage stamps for Swiss Post, which is expected to generate revenues of between $US3m and US$4m over its term, subject to demand and additional options. Click here to read the full story.