An Post stands to make a gain of up to €30 million after putting its 14 acre SDS site on the Naas Road up for sale.

The site contains industrial space, warehouses and office accommodation covering 15,500 square metres. Property sources said the site in Dublin 22 was likely to fetch about €2 million an acre.

An Post is seeking to appoint a sales agent for the site.

The site could appeal to a company in the distribution or logistics industries or might also house a call centre.

A property transaction of this scale could take several months to complete, but An Post which is planning to enter the financial services sector shortly with Belgian bank Fortis is likely to want a quick sale.

An Post has been selling property in several locations over the last three years as it seeks to free up funds for redundancy programmes and improve efficiencies at its various mail centres.

It is also going to spend large sums improving its buildings around the country and upgrading its security systems. There has been a spate of robberies over recent years at some rural post offices.

Regulator ComReg has described its next-day delivery performance as inadequate, so improving the operation of its Dublin mail centre remains a priority. However, the windfall likely to come from the sale may prompt unions to demand higher pay awards.

SDS was the former parcels business of An Post which was re-integrated into the main company two years ago with the loss of 270 jobs.

The loss-making business had been a considerable drain on the company and chief executive Donal Curtin claimed two years ago that it lost €20 million in just two years.

A report on the business by consultants Paul Sweeney and Associates was commissioned by a joint management-union group and circulated internally.

The consultants were asked to find out why losses were continuing at SDS despite a management-union agreement in May 2003 designed to restructure the business.

The report said a failure to maintain sales levels was one of the central reasons for this.

It described the sales team as "poor to non-existent".

"A sales manager has finally been appointed and the company have indicated that a sales team is being put in place. While this is welcome it should have been done seven months ago," the report stated.

It added that while sales activity was important, "unit costs must be attractive to retain and win customers".