UK Royal Mail aims to cash in on goods returned

Royal Mail has branched out into electrical repairs at its Swindon warehouse in order to cash in on a new but potentially lucrative market in goods returned by shoppers.

Retailers could be recouping up to GBP 5.52 billion a year from such goods, according to a report commissioned by Royal Mail. The problem will worsen when new legislation next year forces retailers and manufacturers to take back unwanted electrical goods.

‘Currently retailers sell some of the goods on to the secondary market [developing countries] for about 15-20 per cent of the retail value,’ says Richard Rogers, head of the Royal Mail’s external warehousing division. ‘We have been working with one retailer to resell the products on eBay and getting returns of 65-80 per cent. We have a repair centre in our Swindon warehouse – a joint venture with Interchange Group – to fix the items ourselves.’