The current letter sorting technology used by Itella Posti will reach the end of its life cycle during this decade. Planning for the procurement of new sorting machines has begun. This would constitute a replacement investment which, upon implementation, would bring continuity to mail sorting for several years to come, not only in the Helsinki metropolitan area but other regions of Finland, too.
According to current thinking, the new sorting machines would be located in Oulu, Kuopio and Tampere where the locations of the present postal centers are good and serve their purpose well. A new building in the metropolitan area would also come to house one of the new sorting machines. Due to zoning, the present surroundings of the Helsinki Postal Center will change into an area for office and residential buildings towards the end of the decade, and the Postal Center, built in 1978 and located in northern Pasila, is likely to relocate into a new building somewhere else in the metropolitan area. The new sorting machine would be located in this new postal center.
- This concerns a necessary replacement investment which we will face in the near future in any case, regardless of all other circumstances. From planning to implementation, projects of this scale take years to complete, due to which we have begun preparing for it already. The objective of all of these changes is to ensure that we will continue to be able to provide our customers with the best and most convenient services, says Senior Vice President of Itella Posti Jukka Rosenberg.
If the plans materialize, the new sorting network would be in use at the turn of 2018 and 2019.
As the volumes of traditional letter and magazine mail decline, Itella is seeking growth through e-commerce and the logistics services it requires. The investments will allow Itella to strengthen and promote the business opportunities of online stores. For consumers, the changes will be apparent as increasingly fast delivery times.
The region of Turku represents an important entrance channel for parcels. Itella Posti is therefore expanding and renewing the postal center operations in Lieto, where the postal center operations of Turku will transfer during 2015. At the Seinäjoki Postal Center, the sorting of letters and parcels will be continued with the current machines.
An automation and building project is also underway at the Voutila warehouse in Vantaa. The most integral part of the project is a warehouse building that will be completed in 2015 and feature robots that assist in the handling of online store orders. For Itella, the change means expanding its operations from the delivery of parcels to a complete service for e-commerce, which will cover warehousing, picking, delivery and returns.
In the coming autumn, Itella Posti will also launch a product-specific delivery experiment in six areas. The experiment forms a part of the overall change in mail handling.
06.05.2014 Itella Posti to begin a product-specific delivery experiment in the fall
