Maltapost's new chief executive to take up post next week

Maltapost's new chief executive is expected to take up his post next week, one month after the previous CEO was removed, company chairman Frank Dimech said.

The former CEO, Bob Macgregor, was removed by Maltapost and Transend Worldwide Limited, after just three months in the post "in the long-term business interests" of the company.

In the interim, Mr Dimech had taken over the running of the company until Transend, a subsidiary of New Zealand Post which has a 35 per cent shareholding in Maltapost, nominates a new CEO in terms of its management agreeement.

When contacted following a board meeting last week, Mr Dimech said that though the new CEO was expected to join Maltapost in a week, he did not wish to reveal his name yet.

Dr George Hyzler, Parliamentary Secretary within the Economics Services Ministry, said the name could not be announced yet as both companies would be issuing a joint press statement this week so that the appointment will also be made public in New Zealand.

Dr Hyzler said the new CEO would be taking up his new post today week.

Mr Dimech also said that during the board meeting the company's business plan had been practically finalised, but since the company was in the transition of a new CEO the plan would need his seal of approval before it was made public.

"No CEO worth his salt would just adopt a business plan so at the moment we are still calling it a draft. When he joins he has to look at that draft and by the end of this month he would have to confirm the business plan or tweak it in any way," he said.

Without delving into any specific details, Mr Dimech said the business plan was now more outward-looking than inward-looking.

"The main problem we had was that we didn't have enough creative ideas in terms of outward-looking so that is where we had to make the changes," he said.

"The plan looks at a portfolio of new products and businesses to go through. There is a whole list but I cannot divulge these until they are confirmed. We have to wait for the CEO to confirm the plan," Mr Dimech said.

After Maltapost was partially privatised last February, a furore arose over the way Transend was chosen by the government.

Then, matters escalated somewhat, when Mr Macgregor was removed after just three months in the job. Had this has set off Maltapost to a bad start?

"No, I don't think so. Let's face it, in Malta everything is political so there's nothing new about that. We expect the Opposition to question things, maybe not that far, but they have every right to do, as long as it's fair and constructive criticism," Mr Dimech said.

"Destructive criticism is where it hurts the company. The point is that the former CEO had started to make the necessary changes. He had good qualities, but they were more focused on the inside and not so much on new business, particularly business opportunities overseas.

"What was the company supposed to do? If it sees that this guy is not going to reach the objectives it is looking for, a serious board will have to make a decision and do whatever is right for the business.

"We have 825 people relying on us and we have to take the decision that is right for them, whether we get criticised by government, Opposition or whoever else," Mr Dimech insisted.

He said that while the company was now gearing to have the new CEO, it had started tackling projects which could be done without additional investment.

These projects included internal studies and market research to determine which niches Maltapost could tap into.

"Only a fool will go into business without knowing the size of market availability. Malta lacks market research, so you have to create it yourself," he said.

Among the changes was the new pick-up time of letters from letter-boxes which has shifted to 7 p.m. instead of the morning.

The new system raised the ire of several people; however, Mr Dimech said that with all due respect a lot of people "did not know what they were talking about".

"This system is working well. We know what we pick out of letter boxes and only a small percentage was picked out at 7 a.m in the old system," he said.

"Therefore we had a shift in the morning waiting to get the work. They worked until 10 a.m. and then they were idle. Now letters are picked up at 7 p.m. and again at 11 a.m. - at worst it would be a next day service.

"We are ensuring that at the end of the shift there are no letters left.

"We are guaranteeing a next day service. When you consider that in international countries the best they can provide is often a two-to-three day service, Malta has a very good service and it's hard to improve on it," Mr Dimech said.

Mr Dimech agreed that there was space for improvement. "You will have letters that go astray. We feel for every customer and we do everything possible to avoid mistakes, but it's impossible for a letter never to go astray - at the end of the day it's humans at work," he said, pointing out that the copany handles a million articles a week.

Mr Dimech said that the public did not help the company in ensuring that such mistakes were kept at a minimum, and few used the post code.

"Not using the post code is one thing that hinders the postman from doing his job properly. People are abandoning the use of post codes," he said.

"We need the post codes to get it right, especially in Malta when you have houses that have the same name in the same locality," he continued.

Mr Dimech made an appeal to the public to start using the post codes on all their correspondence.

He said the company was awaiting a report from a Transend adviser who was recently in Malta for two weeks to discuss how Maltapost could tap new business activities.

"We want to get into business equipped with knowledge. Once we know what the niches are we can prepare better," Mr Dimech said.

While in Malta the adviser had meetings with several institutions and organisations, including banks.

Without delving into the specific details, Mr Dimech said that cashing pension cheques could be one of the areas that Maltapost could tap into.

"Another idea could be trying to get a service providing for WSC, Maltacom and big companies to download information onto our printers and we print, insert, deliver and cash," he said.

"However, it is premature to discuss what the plans are in detail. Overall, we have to ensure our investment is going to pay back."