NEW YORK, March 3 -- Pitney Bowes Inc. has reaffirmed its company strategy to expand in the global mailstream industry, and executives recently outlined numerous initiatives to capitalize in the especially high growth segments of this huge market. Speaking at a conference for financial analysts and institutional investors in New York on March 1, Pitney Bowes Chairman and CEO Michael J. Critelli said the company sees several trends that make the mailstream an attractive place for Pitney Bowes to continue to invest. Critelli described the mailstream as a massive market, comprising the data, software, hardware and services that enable the movement every year of more than 500 billion unique mail pieces worldwide, as well as the creation and movement of countless billions more documents within large organizations. "We believe that we are at an inflection point in the mailstream, where changes in technologies and regulations are giving us an unprecedented opportunity to realize superior financial returns. This is the linchpin of our overall growth plan," Critelli said. Among the high-growth segments of this vast global industry, Critelli noted, is life-event marketing - the targeting of direct mail offers to consumers at times of exceptionally high spending, such as when they purchase a home or register a car. Pitney Bowes participates in this market through its Imagitas subsidiary, acquired in 2005 and growing rapidly. Another growth area is fueled by remote commerce, such as online auctions, Critelli said. Pitney Bowes provides software to manage postage for eBay sellers, and has received a fee for each of the tens of millions of packages these sellers have shipped using this service since it was launched two years ago. The partnership recently expanded to eBay Canada, and plans are in place to expand to other international markets as well. A third driver of global mailstream growth is the set of reforms sweeping through postal authorities worldwide. These reforms differ in their specifics from country to country, but in the aggregate will bring greater customer choice for mailers, and greater transparency to the mailstream. Both developments create opportunities for Pitney Bowes to develop new products and services to enhance the value of mail for senders and recipients, according to Critelli. These growth opportunities will combine with ongoing operational improvements to create superior financial returns, Critelli said. "Pitney Bowes will be able to sustain and build on our targets of four to six percent organic revenue growth rate and eight to 10 percent earnings per share growth over an unlimited time horizon," Critelli said. Critelli described Pitney Bowes as a company with "a set of businesses that are inter-related, that draw power and synergy from one other, that are uniquely positioned to lead in their markets, and that will continue to produce high returns on capital and strong cash flow."