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Posten Norge () is the name of the
Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...
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 ...
. The company, owned by the
Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Transportation (; ) is a Norwegian ministry established in 1946, and is responsible for transportation in Norway. The ministry was responsible for communication infrastructure until may 2019, when the responsibility ...
had a
monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...
until 2016 on distribution of letters weighing less than 50g throughout the country. There are 30 post offices in Norway, in addition to 1400 outlets in retail stores.


History

Posten was founded in January 1647 as Postvesenet ("the postal system") by general post master Henrik Morian. It was established as a private company, and King
Christian IV Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs and Scandinavian monar ...
gave his blessing to the founding of the company. Postvesenet was privately run until 1719, when the state took over. From that point on, national postal service was a
state monopoly In economics, a government monopoly or public monopoly is a form of coercive monopoly in which a government agency or government corporation is the sole provider of a particular good or service and competition is prohibited by law. It is a monopo ...
. Local city postal services remained private, but in 1888 a new postal law was introduced which expanded the monopoly to the entire country. In 1933, Postvesenet was renamed Postverket. In 1996, Posten Norge BA was established as a state-owned company in which the Norwegian state had
limited liability Limited liability is a legal status in which a person's financial liability is limited to a fixed sum, most commonly the value of a person's investment in a corporation, company or partnership. If a company that provides limited liability to it ...
. In 2002 Posten changed its corporate structure to that of a stock company, to prepare the company for the expected
deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...
of the Norwegian postal market. Posten Norge AS is still fully owned by the Norwegian state and the liberalization process has been postponed until 2011 by the government. The postal service is divided into four divisions: Post, Logistics, Distribution Network and ErgoGroup AS. The latter specialized in electronic services and outsourcing. ErgoGroup merged with EDB to form Evry ASA, which Posten now jointly owns with the Norwegian multinational telecommunications company
Telenor ASA Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwide ...
.


Expansion

In 2002 Norway Post acquired 57% of the shares of a private Swedish postal 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 ...
and acquired the remaining 43% in the first quarter of 2006. Norway Post also owns, or partly owns
Nor-Cargo Nor-Cargo AS is a Norwegian cargo transport and logistics company and subsidiary of Posten Norge, the Norwegian Postal Service. It operates road, water and air transport. The company operates through 32 Terminals with 1,000 long-distance and 6 ...
as well as Frigoscandia, Pan Nordic Logistics, Scanex B.V., Nettlast Hadeland, many of which have their own subsidiaries.


See also

* PostNord Sverige, 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 *''
When Harry Met Santa ''When Harry Met Santa'' is a Christmas-themed advertisement for Posten Norge, the Norwegian postal service. It was released in November 2021 in advance of the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of sex between men in Norway in 2022. Con ...
'' (TV advert for the company) *
List of oldest companies This list of the oldest companies in the world includes brands and companies, excluding associations and educational, government, or religious organizations. To be listed, a brand or company name must remain operating, either in whole or in part ...


References


External links


English version of the official site of Norway PostThe four divisions
{{authority control
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...
Government-owned companies of Norway Postal system of Norway Government agencies established in 1647 Philately of Norway 1647 establishments in Norway Ministry of Transport (Norway)