Sue Huggins General Manager – Rural Post Office Ltd Co-location in rural service delivery.
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Transcript of Sue Huggins General Manager – Rural Post Office Ltd Co-location in rural service delivery.
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The Rural Network today• Rural defined as ≤ 10k inhabitants
• Roughly 8,000 outlets, of which some 6,000 are in communities of less than 1,000
• Wide range of premises, typically village shops, but also including
• halls of various types• pub premises• private houses• restaurants/cafes• schools, old people’s homes• portacabins, farms, stables• garden sheds and other outbuildings!
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The importance of retail
84% of network has a retail offer attached:
• General Store
• Greetings Stationer
• Convenience
• CTN
• General Stationer
• Supermarket/Hypermarket
• Garage/Service Station
• Pharmacist/Chemist
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The Rural Post The Rural Post OfficeOffice®® Network – Network – 8100 branches 8100 branches covering the covering the whole of the UKwhole of the UK
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Key features of the Post Office Rural Network• A UK wide integrated IT system (with
on line banking capability) – covering all rural areas
• A UK wide secure distribution system – covering all rural areas
• A UK wide branded franchise system – enabling consistent product/service delivery by local people in all rural areas
• UK’s most trusted brand
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Two different forms of co-location• Service Bundling – Post Office Ltd bundles a
range of different products and services and uses its network for delivery into rural areas (banking, Government services, utility bills, postal, financial services, travel etc)
• Resource Bundling – Post Offices co-locate premises (village shop, pubs, churches, village halls etc) and people (sub-postmasters and assistants may also be shopkeeper, publican, librarian etc)
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Example of co-location – Norfolk Police partnership
An example of both service bundling and resource bundling
• 8 rural Post Office Branches providing ‘front desk’ services for the Police
• Citizens get better geographic and hours coverage
• Subpostmaster gets income to assist sustainability
• Police get value for money operation
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When co-location works
• When it is win/win/win (people/premises/products)
• When it is convenient to customers rather than convenient to suppliers
• When costs can be genuinely shared• When all parties are committed
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However, co-location demands a sustainable underpinning economic model• All parties want to co-locate at marginal
cost• A sustainable platform infrastructure is a
pre-condition for sustainable co-location• Social benefits need to be translated into
financial flows to support the model• Clarity and consistency of approach are
needed if individuals/groups are going to commit resources into the medium term
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Final Thoughts
• Co – location works when it is considered as part of wider agenda and when there is genuine commitment to that agenda
• I’d like to applaud Defra for working to develop a strategic approach to co-location as a mechanism to enhance rural service delivery