Royal Mail: domestic parcel volumes up 64%
Royal Mail has provided its first quarterly update on volumes in its Royal Mail and GLS businesses covering the period Monday 30 March to 28 June 2020. The quarterly reports will continue throughout the pandemic.
Royal Mail
- Royal Mail Parcel volume up 38% year on year (117 million more parcels)
- Domestic account (ex. Amazon) parcel volume up 64%
- Addressed letters (ex. elections) volume down 33% (788 million fewer letters)
GLS
- Volumes up 22% year on year
- Volume trends for the first quarter overall were broadly unchanged from the update provided on 25
June, which covered the first two months of FY2020-21. There are no changes to the two scenarios for
FY2020-21 previously outlined on 25 June.
Overview
- Parcel growth in both Royal Mail and GLS continues to be driven by B2C and e-commerce.
Advertising mail in Royal Mail continues to be impacted by GDP and low levels of business activity. - As the UK starts to come out of lockdown we are not seeing any change as yet in customer behaviour.
Our customers are wanting more parcels delivered to their homes and are sending fewer letters. We
are working as quickly as we can to adapt our business to meet our customer needs. - The initiatives announced on 25 June, namely the integration of Parcelforce into Royal Mail, the
management restructure and actions on non-people costs in Royal Mail, alongside Group capex
reduction initiatives, are all underway. - Following the Joint Statement on 29 June between Royal Mail and CWU, talks with CWU are progressing.
Royal Mail will hold its AGM on 8 September. A further update on second quarter volumes will be
published in October.
