Posten (Sweden)

Infobox_Company
company_name = Posten AB
company_
company_type = Government enterprise
company_slogan =
foundation = 1636
location = Sweden
key_people =
num_employees = 30,000
products = Mail
revenue = 25.277 billion SEK (2005)| homepage = [http://www.posten.se/ www.posten.se]

Posten is the name of the Swedish postal service. The word "posten" means "the post" or "the mail" in Swedish.

Posten was established in 1636 by Axel Oxenstierna under the name "Kungliga Postverket" (Royal Postal Agency), although its origins can be traced further back, and it was operated as a government agency into the 1990s when it was transformed into a government-owned limited company. One of the most visible changes to the postal service was the decision in 2000 to abandon the service maintained at the public post offices in 2001.

The public today deals with its postal business at Postal Service Points, which are maintained in grocery shops and gas stations. Postal Service Centres are maintained for business clients and Svensk Kassaservice, a chain which deals with simple financial transactions but offers no postal services.

In addition to regular mail, Posten is also the largest distributor of direct mail (addressed and unadressed) in Sweden (annual report 2005, pg.18 [http://hugin.info/134112/R/1053089/175010.pdf] ).

Mail and package delivery is seen as very reliable in Sweden, but it has undergone large scale organisational changes and rationalisation in the last decade. Nevertheless, it is under ever increasing competition from private companies on the Swedish deregulated postal market. Their main competitor is the formerly private company CityMail, nationalised by Norway as of 2006. [http://www.citymail.se/Pressinfo/Pressmeddelandearkiv/2005/Posten-Norge-AS-lagger-bud-pa-OptiMail-AB-/]

Director Generals of Postverket

*1850-1867 Otto Wilhelm Staël von Holstein (1802-84)
*1867-1889 Wilhelm Roos(1824-95)
*1889-1907 Edvard von Krusenstjerna (1841-1907)
*1896-1902 Frans Herman Schlytern (tf)
*1907-1907 Richard Ossbahr (1853-1936)
*1907-1925 Julius Juhlin (1861-1934)
*1925-1947 Anders Örne (1881-1956)
*1947-1965 Erik Swartling (1900-85)
*1965-1973 Nils Hörjel (1917-2006)
*1973-1982 Ove Rainer (1925-87)
*1982-1988 Bertil Zachrisson (1926-)
*1988-1994 Ulf Dahlsten (1946-)

Managing Directors of Posten AB

*1994-1998 Ulf Dahlsten (1946-)
*1999-2002 Lennart Grabe (1946-)
*2002-2003 Börje Österholm (1942-)
*2003-2008 Erik Olsson (1959-)2008-- Lars G. Nordström (1943-)

See also

*Postage stamps and postal history of Sweden
*List of Swedish government enterprises
*Posten Norge, the Norwegian postal service

External links

* [http://www.posten.se/m/startpage Posten.se] - Official Posten site