Durham, N.C., USA and Eschborn, Germany - Bell and Howell, a leading provider of solutions and services for communications and commerce technology solutions, hosted the first Bell and Howell Forum with its partner Postcon Germany at its production site in Griesheim/Frankfurt from June 25 to June 26.

With a focus on the market of private postal services companies in Germany, the organizers put together a varied program over two days. The participants were able to gain new impressions about the current and future developments in the national postal market, which were presented by Bell and Howell staff and guest speakers. The guest presentations were given by the decision makers of some of Germany's largest private postal companies and network partners.

The core theme of the event was eCommerce, as well as topics related to the national mail item exchange and efficiency improvements in the sorting process of mailpieces. As part of the event, Bell and Howell staff presented its ParcelMgr parcel-sorting system with its versatile application possibilities, already installed at customer site Postcon. With a sorting capacity of up to 5,000 packages per hour, the ParcelMgr currently ranks among the most efficient of compact designed sorting systems in the emerging market for eCommerce in the “books and goods” sized parcels area.

Bell and Howell CEO Ramesh Ratan spoke to the attendees and outlined the importance of the European, and particularly the German, postal market for the company. Throughout the event, Bell and Howell experts presented service concepts for the more than 200 installed Bell and Howell sorting systems throughout Europe.

“The Forum was a great platform for us to show our established expertise, based on our four-pillars business model – letter-sorting systems, parcel-sorting systems, enterprise solutions and services – to the local private German postal market in more detail,” said Hendrik Fischer, Managing Director of Bell and Howell Germany GmbH. 

Rüdiger Hartmann, Sales Manager of Bell and Howell Germany GmbH, added, “Of course we were very pleased that our forum was attended by so many participants from the German private postal market. A major draw was certainly our high-profile guest speakers who were able to convey a lot of new ideas and impulses. Furthermore, we had seen prior to the event that many postal services are looking for an exchange of ideas with colleagues and suppliers in order to pave the way for further economic growth. And last but not least, we at Bell and Howell have learned a lot and constantly strived to align our solutions and services to the needs of private postal services. We look forward to hosting a follow-up event this autumn.”