General Assembly focusses on growing EMS business

As global markets recover, the need to grow EMS business was a key topic discussed at the 25th EMS Cooperative General Assembly, held at the UPU headquarters in Switzerland.

The Chair of the EMS Cooperative Board, Patrick Richon, welcomed all EMS Cooperative members and outlined the honour to have the Director General, Deputy Director General, and the Director of Postal Operations present for the opening of the meeting, underlying the strong support for EMS Cooperative activities.

Masahiko Metoki, attending his first EMS General Assembly as the new UPU Director General, addressed members, noting that the last few years have been difficult for EMS due to supply chain disruption. To achieve EMS market share recovery, all EMS Cooperative members need to execute the activities set out in the EMS Cooperative Business Plan as the right way to strengthen the EMS service. Mr Metoki also highlighted the invaluable contribution of the EMS Cooperative to the UPU and its members, particularly through the delivery of ongoing activities, such as the regular regional meetings and by using all the data available in EMS SMART to measure and analyse performance.  To further assist members EMS SMART was demonstrated at the meeting.

Enhancing EMS service performance is necessary for market recovery and many EMS Cooperative members are already excelling in this area. The work of members in 2021 was rewarded during the presentation of the Customer Care awards and the Gold, Silver and Bronze performance awards at the meeting. Members at the two-day event also reviewed the work of the EMS Cooperative over the last year, endorsed the 2021 budget and were updated on the 2022 budget. During the market intelligence update members were presented with the results of EMS market situation and traffic survey which a snapshot of global and regional trends for EMS in 2020. 

Looking forward, the challenge is clear, operators need to rapidly grow EMS export volumes and regain market share, but the hope is that ongoing close cooperation and continuous improvements will allow EMS volumes to return to, and even surpass, pre-pandemic levels.