Can Brewer turn around Pos Malaysia?

Charles Brewer gave a talk on the growth of eCommerce in Asia Pacific and globally for the Malaysia Institute for Supply Chain Innovation (MISI) students, recently.

By ZAIDI ISHAM ISMAIL
editor@dagangnews.com

KUALA LUMPUR 4 August - Postal and its related services are essential to almost every country in the world. However with the advent of e-mail, the playing field has changed dramatically and postal companies are forced to innovate

The advent of courier and delivery services have effectively made the postal business irrelevant and obsolete.

Such is the case with Pos Malaysia which is still delivering conventional letters as a mean of earning an income.

A quick check on Bursa Malaysia on Pos Malaysia showed that it has been loss making for a long, long time.

Last year alone, the company which is controlled by Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary made a staggering loss of RM300 million on the back of a RM2.3 billion revenue.

So it was sort of expected that the company had appointed former DHL executive Charles Brewer as the new Pos Malaysia chief.

Brewer is Pos Malaysia's fourth CEO in 5 years.

"Little is known of Brewer's style of management but I suspect he is the hatchet man where he will cut and cut and cut.

"Pos Malaysia is top heavy with a total of 18,000 workers.

I am sure Syed Mokhtar had directed Brewer to do whatever it takes to cut cost and this includes laying off staff," an industry insider told DagangNews.com.

He added Pos Malaysia is also plagued with legacy issues.

The company was taken over by Syed Mokhtar circa 2005, of which many saw as a bailout.

"Let us not forget that Syed Mokhtar's stable of companies are powerhouses in ports, power and automotive.

So logistics and postal is something alien to the Syed Mokhtar Group.

"So it was not a perfect marriage to begin with," added the source.

Brewer is a true blue logistics man serving 34 years in DHL and perhaps he can bring about change in Pos Malaysia.

A second industry source said Brewer who started work on August 1 has his work cut out for him.

"Pos Malaysia's business model is obsolete and no longer relevant in this day and age.

"Pos Malaysia still relies on selling stamps to banks and government ministries.

"Who on earth uses stamps anymore these days amid e-mails and apps," said the analyst.

Yes,Pos Malaysia has more than 18,000 workers and there is a need to retrench some of them.

But the company's workers also has a strong union and it will be tough road ahead for Brewer.

There is a need to take a second look at the whole group because at the moment only Pos Laju is doing well.

"Pos Malaysia can turn around riding on the boom of online shopping which needs its services to deliver the goods," a business editor told DagangNews.com.

Can Brewer do the job and deliver? Only time will tell. - DagangNews.com