New UK Midlands mail centre creates 20 jobs

A new mail centre has opened in the West Midlands which is set to create 20 jobs.

DHL Global Mail said the complex – handling and distributing business-to-business mail – would challenge Royal Mail in the wake of deregulation.

Located in Sutton Coldfield, it will employ up to 20 people initially, and is expected to double in size over the next year.

The new service, called Smartmail Citispeed, offers mail collection from any business in the UK, and delivery within designated postcodes in the Midlands, London, and the North-west.

The Birmingham operation is the second DHL mail centre to open in six weeks, following one in the North West in April.

Director and general manager, Tony Allsop, who heads up the service, said: ‘The fundamental factor missing in today’s mail services is reliability, and by building our own network we have 100 per cent control over this. This is why we have embarked on the largest rollout of a domestic business-to-business mail service in the UK since deregulation was announced.

‘DHL Global Mail has total control over how and when post gets delivered, which means we can provide Birmingham businesses with tailored mail services, a wider range of price options and better reliability rates.

‘We’ve made a significant investment in our own network as we believe that Birmingham is strategically a key location towards building a significant and successful postal network. Local businesses can now decide who delivers their mail, and at a highly competitive rate.’

Deregulation was announced in January. Since then, a phased timeline has been in place to allow sections of the market to gradually open up to competition.

Full deregulation is scheduled for January 1 next year