KYIV Posted Nov. 3, 2017?? Working at KPMG and BCG Europe in New York, Igor Smelyansky often went through the paper exercise of tearing apart a failing company to find value.
Now he has the opportunity to do this in real life, as acting CEO of Ukrposhta, the national postal service and Ukraine?s third largest employer, after the state oil company and the state railroad.
After 18 months on the job, Smelyansky has identified three pockets of real value for the 21st century.
E-commerce deliveries boom
E-commerce is prompting a boom in delivery of parcels to homes. Nova Poshta, the private postal system, got a head start. Last year, it delivered 120 million parcels, 7.5 times Ukrposhta, which was converted this year into a joint stock company.
To catch up, Smelyansky is in talks with USPS, Amazon Fulfilment, Paypal, and Ukraine?s three largest e-commerce companies. Since Ukraine has a duty free limit of EUR 150 per package, he also is talking with the state Customs Service to allow for direct shipping contracts and electronic duty collection. The target: quadruple deliveries to 2.2 parcels per Ukrainian by 2021.