Guernsey Post is getting things sorted
SPECIALIST engineers are installing Guernsey Post’s new automated parcel sorting machine at Envoy House.
The work is being done in a challenging year for the company, with 35 staff having taken voluntary redundancy in March, a move made as part of a range of measures to try and reverse the £1.5m. loss it made in the last financial year.
Guernsey Post finance director Steve Sheridan said that the £1.8m. machine, which will be approximately 50m long and capable of sorting more than 6,000 parcels per hour, would be operational by mid-September.
‘We handle about 20,000 parcels a day so it will really help us with our overall processing speed,’ he said.
‘The redesign of our headquarters that has come with this building work has seen our operational floor space increase by 50% as well, so it’s been a huge change for the company.’
There is some disruption at the building, with customers most likely to notice the change in the car park layout.
But they will still be able to access all the usual services.
Due to the nature of the work – preparation for which began in January – about a third of the company’s delivery staff have been operating from a satellite office at Bulwer Avenue.
Chief executive Boley Smillie said that all staff would return to the company’s headquarters at Envoy House once the installation was complete.
‘It’s been a very disruptive time in terms of space, but I can’t speak highly enough of everybody,’ he said.
‘They have all pulled together exceptionally well.’
He added that customers should see very little impact in terms of service over the next few months.
‘It’s been a big year of transition for us, and the installation of this new machine is the single biggest way in which we are trying to mitigate against some of the commercial difficulties we have faced.’
Some of these difficulties have included increases in both operational costs and pricing, with Mr Smillie saying that the company had absorbed many of the increases itself.
However, he was still optimistic that it could reverse the position it found itself in at the end of the last financial year and return to profit.
‘It’ll be easier said than done, but we will work hard to make it happen.’
