PostNord Sverige (formerly ''Posten AB'') is the name of the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

postal service The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal syst ...

. In 2009 Posten merged with its Danish equivalent, Post Danmark A/S, forming PostNord AB, a holding company that is jointly owned by the

(60%) and Danish (40%) governments. A rebranding to PostNord for both the mail and logistics divisions was performed in 2015.

History

Posten was established as ''Kungliga Postverket'' (The Royal Postal Agency) in 1636 by the

Lord High Chancellor of Sweden The Lord High Chancellor ( sv, Rikskansler), literally ''Chancellor of the Realm'', was a prominent and influential office in Sweden, from 1538 until 1799, excluding periods when the office was out of use. The office holder was a member of the Priv ...

Axel Oxenstierna Axel Gustafsson Oxenstierna af Södermöre (; 1583–1654), Count of Södermöre, was a Swedish statesman. He became a member of the Swedish Privy Council in 1609 and served as Lord High Chancellor of Sweden from 1612 until his death. He was a c ...

, who was

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

until the young Queen Christina took the throne in 1644. 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 replace Posten's numerous

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional se ...

s with a franchise net of postal service points, run by grocery shops and petrol stations. Postal Service Centres, run by Posten, are maintained for business clients only. In addition to regular mail, Posten is also the largest distributor in Sweden of

advertising mail Advertising mail, also known as direct mail (by its senders), junk mail (by its recipients), mailshot or admail (North America), letterbox drop or letterboxing (Australia) is the delivery of advertising material to recipients of postal mail. The d ...

. Mail and package delivery has in recent times become less reliable in Sweden, accredited to the large scale organisational changes and rationalisation in the last decade. Nevertheless, it is under increasing competition from private companies on the Swedish deregulated postal market. Their main competitor is the formerly private company

CityMail Citymail AB is a private postal organisation operating in Sweden (since 1991) and Denmark between 2007 and 2009, competing with the Swedish-Danish state-owned Postnord. They specialize in direct mail and advertising Advertising is the ...

, nationalised by Norway as of 2006

On 24 June 2009, Posten AB merged with

Post Danmark Post Danmark A/S is the national provider of postal services in Denmark. It was established as a fully state-owned stock holder's company in 1995 following political liberalization efforts. Post Danmark had taken over the mail delivery concessi ...

to form the new holding company PostNord AB, owned by the Swedish (60%) and Danish (40%) governments.

Transportation of the mail

All second-class mail in Sweden has been sent by rail since 2001.

Directors General of Postverket

Posten på Storgatan, Sundsvall (Sverige)

*1850–1867

Otto Wilhelm Staël von Holstein Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', '' Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded f ...

(1802–1884) *1867–1889

Wilhelm Roos Samuel Wilhelm Roos (3 July 1858 - 10 December 1944) was a Finnish Lutheran clergyman and politician, born in Vehmaa. He was a member of the Diet of Finland from 1904 to 1906 and of the Parliament of Finland from 1909 to 1916 and again from 1917 to ...

(1824–1895) *1889–1907

Edvard von Krusenstjerna Edvard is a form of Edward and may refer to: * Edvard Askeland (born 1954), Norwegian jazz musician * Edvard Befring (born 1936), Norwegian educationalist * Edvard Beneš (1884–1948), Czech politician * Edvard Christian Danielsen (1888–1964), ...

(1841–1907) *1896–1902

Frans Herman Schlytern Frans is an Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish given name, sometimes as a short form of ''François''. One cognate of Frans in English is ''Francis''. Given name * Frans van Aarssens (1572–1641), Dutch diplom ...

(acting) *1907–1907

Richard Ossbahr Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

(1853–1936) *1907–1925

Julius Juhlin The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the ...

(1861–1934) *1925–1947

Anders Örne Anders Örne (1881–1956) was a Swedish politician who served as the minister of communications (transport) between 1921 and 1923. He also headed the Cooperative Society and Post Office Administration. In addition, he was a member of the Social ...

(1881–1956) *1947–1965 Erik Swartling (1900–1985) *1965–1973 Nils Hörjel (1917–2006) *1973–1982

Ove Rainer Anders Ove Rainer (14 September 1925 – 27 January 1987) was a Swedish civil servant. He served as minister for justice from 1982 and 1983. Rainer was a jurist by profession. In addition, he served as the head of the Swedish Ice Hockey Associati ...

(1925–1987) *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–)

References

External links

Posten.se
– Official Posten site {{DEFAULTSORT:Posten Ab Government-owned companies of Sweden

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...