What would Ken Thomas or Sir Peter Abeles make of it? TNT is an independent company again – but now its shares are quoted on the Amsterdam Euronext market.
The listing of TNT Express is part of the company’s de-merger from TNT NV, which received shareholder approval yesterday. The Dutch mail business, the other part of the group, has been renamed PostNL and will trade separately.
It’s been a long journey for the express carrier. It was founded by Ken Thomas with a single truck in Australia in 1946 – the initials stand for Thomas Nationwide Transport.
But the business really took off in 1967 following a merger with Sir Peter Abeles’s Alltrans.
With Abeles as managing director TNT expanded, and by the 1980s had established a presence in 180 countries.
TNT was taken over by a consortium of post offices in 1992 finally becoming part of the Dutch post office in 1996.
The group now employs 83,000 people at 2,600 depots around the world, operates 50 aircraft and 30,000 trucks, and delivers 4.7 million items a week. Sales last year were about 7bn euros.
[asset_ref id=”1187″]Marie-Christine LombardSpeaking in advance of the listing on Euronext, chief executive Marie-Christine Lombard said: “Our new independence will allow us to build a stronger, more focused TNT Express. We are aiming to consolidate our leading positions – particularly in the European express market and on Asia-Europe lanes – while also capturing domestic growth opportunities in selected emerging markets. I would like to thank our customers, investors and employees, all of whom make this possible.”
