Postal company TNT and the ING banking group are to close down the country’s 250 remaining specialist post offices with the loss of 1,850 jobs over the next five years.

The Dutch post office network, which used to be 2,000 branches strong, is run by a 50-50 joint venture between TNT and ING subsidiary Postbank.
Both companies say they want to focus sales activities within their own retail networks.
TNT said the number of people using specialist post offices has been falling for years.
According to the Telegraaf, post offices booked a combined loss of €1.5m last year.
‘This change meets market developments and the changing wishes of the Dutch consumer,’ TNT said in a statement. The company plans to open a further 750 sales points within existing shops, bringing the total to 2,600.
ING is phasing out the Postbank brand and will integrate Postbank activities into ING high-street branches. ‘This is an extremely difficult message for the people who work there. They face five years of uncertainty,’ said a spokesman for the CNV trade union federation. ‘We will do all we can to prevent compulsory redundancies.’