Saving brake: PostFinance withdraws from cultural sponsorships
PostFinance’s «Victoria» cost-cutting program is having an impact on the cultural scene. The postal service’s subsidiary will be phasing out its sponsorship of the variety show «Das Zelt» and the “Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra” at the end of the year.
PostFinance spokesman Johannes Möri confirmed this to Handelszeitung. The state-owned bank's ice hockey sponsorship is also being "optimized". Apparently, PostFinance wants to reduce its support for the national team and concentrate on the league.
Postfinance also wants to make savings in the ATM network, as the Handelszeitung writes with reference to internal documents. Accordingly, all locations are to be scrutinized. New ATMs are to be approved only "in the event of positive profitability".
At Postfinance, there is currently a hiring freeze. Spokesman Möri says that "vacancies will only be filled if there is a well-founded need". Definitive personnel decisions will be made in the fall. Trade unions fear that several hundred jobs will be cut.
"Victoria" is part of a Group-wide restructuring of Swiss Post. Group CEO Susanne Ruoff is trimming the federal operation for efficiency. By 2020, the federal operation will close 500 to 600 traditional post offices and convert them into agencies. The Group's IT will be turned upside down, and power will be concentrated at the operations center in Bern Wankdorf.
First, the management squeezed the staff at the lower level like a lemon, and now it's the turn of the "Speckgürtel," as it is called within the post office," says René Fürst of the Transfair staff association. Fürst speaks of the "biggest restructuring since PTT was split into Swiss Post and Swisscom.
