Top UK firms lose out on mail consolidation services

Companies waste GBP251 million each year in international postage costs because they fail to use consolidation services.

This is according to research by mail communications specialist Corporate Mailing Matters (CMM) into the UK’s top 4,000 companies.

The study showed that for the top 500 companies failing to use mail consolidation – whereby discounts are received for pre-sorting post – equates to almost GBP280,000 per company annually.

Simon Harris, international business development manager at CMM said: “People believe Royal Mail is the be all and end all off postal services, but it’s not. I’m surprised people are still using Royal Mail when there is so much more out there.”

The research also claims that only five per cent of large companies use consolidation services, although it predicts this will rise to 40 per cent over the next three years.

George Przybyla, corporate account manager at international business mail provider Spring, said: “Part of the reason is lack of awareness of these services and the other is wariness of trying anything new. The bigger users do know of their existence but it’s the small- to medium-sized businesses that don’t.”

Those clients that switch to mail consolidation could save between 10 and 20 per cent, depending on weight, volume and destination, said Przybyla.