The postal services market in Europe was liberalised in 2011, but so far no competitor for the post office, known as bpost, has emerged. Vlaamse Post staff have been pounding the pavements of Flanders since last year, spokesman Laurens Van den Wijngaert said, to map every mailbox in the region, taking note of those which have “no advertising” stickers attached and compiling a database of every area showing the size of each plot of land and the approximate income of each household, the better to serve direct mail clients. The company is currently looking for 100 part- and full-time employees.

The companies behind Vlaamse Post are remaining anonymous for the time being, as each of them is at present a client of bpost. From 2014, Vlaamse Post aims to become a full-service postal business. “Will there be Vlaamse Post stamps? Will we work with our own network of post offices?” Van den Wijngaert said. “Apparently we will.” 

www.vlaamsepost.be