International Express Mail Growth Spurred by Kahala Posts Group

SAN FRANCISCO — An international alliance of eight national postal administrations is marking the two-year anniversary of its date-certain, guaranteed international Express Mail Service (EMS) by expanding to new member countries and paving the way to launch new products.

Kahala Posts Group (KPG), a collaborative network of the postal administrations of Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, accounts for almost half of the world’s total EMS traffic. With delivery to more than 261 million addresses, 8 billion post code combinations and service available at more than 142,000 retail locations, KPG provides a powerful network and consistently high delivery standards.

At its annual meeting today in San Francisco, KPG reported growth of more than 40 percent in volume for its date-certain, guaranteed EMS service since inception of the alliance.

“KPG has shown that both consumers and businesses can depend on their postal administrations for reliable express service whether they’re shipping to friends, family or business partners,” said U.S. Postmaster General John Potter, KPG chief executive officer and board chairman. “We are leveraging our expertise through shared technology and an integrated network to provide superior, dependable service at very competitive prices,” said Potter.

KPG members integrated their operational and information technology networks to provide date-certain international EMS beginning in July 2005. Backed by a guarantee and reliability on par with private couriers, the product has helped national posts regain share in the international package marketplace, and has proven especially popular with small to medium business sector customers.

Potter said EMS growth is attributed to solid performance improvements, competitive prices with no hidden charges and full end-to-end visibility. “Customers have found peace of mind with KPG’s tracking and tracing capability,” he said.

Founded in 2003 with six members, KPG is building on its success to expand. In December 2006, KPG welcomed Correos-Y-Telegrafos and the Royal Mail Group, national postal administrations of Spain and the United Kingdom respectively. These two partners are already in the process of integrating operational and information technology networks with KPG to provide seamless, end-to-end delivery.

At this year’s annual meeting, the existing eight members were joined by Le Groupe La Poste, postal administration of France. Demonstrated performance improvements, consistent service excellence and an extensive network reach all contributed to La Poste’s decision to join KPG after 15 years of using private couriers. Discussions also are underway with postal administrations in other key regions of the world to further expand package delivery service in KPG member markets.

KPG will add to its product offerings by enhancing service features of Air Parcel products by the end of this year. (Air Parcel products are branded as Priority Mail International in the United States.) KPG also has plans to further expand its product line with innovative offerings as early as 2008.

“With a strong commitment from each of the KPG partners to deliver on our promise, our possibilities are endless,” said Potter. “We look forward to bringing the successes of this alliance to other regions of the world.”