Itella will acquire the parcel business of SmartPOST OÜ, based in Estonia. SmartPOST OÜ has established an innovative service concept in Estonia, where parcel sending and delivery are based on self-servicing parcel terminals and doing business online.
In the transaction, SmartPOST OÜ's customer agreements, personnel (six employees), service concept, the SmartPOST brand and name, as well as 38 parcel terminals covering the whole Estonia, will be transferred to Itella. The transaction will not affect SmartPOST OÜ's customers, personnel, suppliers or subcontractors.
The seller is SmartPOST OÜ whose founders will continue to develop and manufacture parcel terminal technology in their own separate company.
SmartPOST's client base comprises remote and online trade companies operating in Estonia, and consumers. SmartPOST has a share of approximately 25 % of the Estonian consumer parcel delivery market. The business acquired by Itella will be transferred to a company called OÜ Itella SmartPOST.
Itella has a strong presence in the Estonian market and the consumer parcel business completes the offering. The service concept developed by SmartPOST is unique, and customers have quickly become familiar with it. We will continue to serve Estonian customers, says Aku Happo, Director of Itella's Express and Parcel Business.
- We want to concentrate on developing parcel terminal technology, and are satisfied that we have found a strong owner for the Estonian business, says Peep Kuld founder and co-owner of the SmartPOST OÜ.
The SmartPOST acquisition will supplement Itella's service range in Estonia, where Itella already has a strong position through Itella Logistics OÜ and Itella Information AS. Itella companies in Estonia have about 170 employees after this transaction.
Further information:
Aku Happo, Director, Express and Parcel Business, Itella Mail Communication, tel. +358 40 562 7065, firstname.lastname@itella.com
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Itella Group provides solutions for managing information and product flows. Itella operates in mail communication, information logistics and logistics in northern and central Europe, and in Russia. The Group employs some 30,000 staff and reported net sales of EUR 1,820 million in 2009. Corporate services are delivered under the Itella brand, while the Posti brand is used for services targeted at consumers in Finland. More information on the Group is available at www.itella.com/.
SmartPOST (www.smartpost.ee) is a logistics company engaged in delivery of goods purchased by the clients of Internet vendors and mail-order catalogues. People and businesses can also use SmartPOST to send parcels to anywhere in Estonia. For this purpose, SmartPOST uses "self-servicing post offices" or parcel terminals located in shopping centers all over Estonia.
SmartPOST is also a technology company, that develops and produces equipment and software for self-servicing post offices (www.smart-post.eu).
SmartPOST's mission is to make receiving and sending the goods purchased from the Internet vendors and mail order catalogues faster, more convenient and cost efficient.
