SingPost sells off bankrupt US assets, expects no financial impact

Singapore Post (SingPost) has sold off assets from its US eCommerce businesses, Jagged Peak and TradeGlobal which filed for bankruptcy in September 2019. Jagged Peak and TradeGlobal first filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code three months ago, which saw SingPost commencing a marketing and sale process of the assets.

The US subsidiaries have been deconsolidated from SingPost group financials. According to SingPost, it does not expect any financial impact to the SingPost group arising from the Jagged Peak sale and the TradeGlobal sale.

Meanwhile in Singapore, SingPost has been working towards improving its service standards. The end of last year and beginning of 2019 was not the smoothest of times for SingPost. It got embroiled into service issues raised by customers in December last year, after a customer took to social media to express his frustration over a postman who did not wait for the knock on the door to be answered and left a letter for self-collection.

A SingPost spokesperson told Marketing then that it processes an average of three million mail items a day. The November-December peak season was a “tremendously” busy period for its staff members, as the spokesperson said, adding that its postmen had to make an average of an additional 20 doorstep deliveries daily due to the increased postage volumes.

Shortly after, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) imposed a financial penalty of SG$100,000 on SingPost for not meeting the quality of service standards on delivery of local basic letters and registered mail from January to December 2017. Under IMDA’s Postal quality of standards framework, SingPost is required to deliver 99% of local basic letters to an address within the Central Business District (CBD) and 98% of local basic letters to destinations outside the CBD areas by the next working day.

Most recently, SingPost said it will be adjusting some of its existing products and services to meet the demands brought about by changes in Singapore’s postal landscape, including the growth of eCommerce and falling mail volumes. It also introduced two new postal service categories called "basic package" and "tracked package" that will aid in efficiency in delivery.

(Photo courtesy: 123RF)