UK postal deregulation only six months away – but business awareness still low post watchdog tells leading charities

The UK’s postal service is being liberalised on 1st January 2006, but many businesses and organisations are still unaware of the opening-up of the market to competitors to Royal Mail early next year.

Matt Ward, Deputy Director of Competition and Regulation at Postcomm, the postal industry regulator, outlined the implications for the deregulation of the postal industry to over 60 delegates from major charities and other membership-based organisations at a key industry conference, organised by Keywords, a leading direct mail service provider. Delegates at the conference, held at The National Trust property, The Vyne, on Friday, 10th June, discussed what customers should be doing to prepare themselves for an overhaul of the postal service, one of their most fundamental communication channels.

With charity organisations spending GBP100m on postage each year, the workshop provided a good platform for raising awareness of postal deregulation. Although liberalisation of the postal market comes into force in January 2006, many organisations and businesses are still unaware of how it will affect them. Postcomm directly addressed this issue at the workshop and encouraged attendees such as The National Trust, The British Medical Association and The Royal Horticultural Society to share their views.

Matt Ward, Deputy Director of Competition and Regulation at Postcomm, commented: “Competition is good for mail customers. Where mail service providers – including Royal Mail – are concerned, competition can improve incentives for efficiency gains, customer focus and innovation. That gives customers better prices and a better quality of service. There is no doubt that Royal Mail is facing the challenge of competition and its quality of service is improving as a result. As the market opens up, we hope this improvement – plus a greater choice of mail service provider – will give customers a better postal service.”

Peter Mahoney, Managing Director of Keywords, who hosted the event explains: “With new communication options now available such as email and text broadcasting, it is important that not-for-profit organisations also recognise the opportunities that will exist following postal deregulation after January 2006. The conference provided Postcomm with a great opportunity to demonstrate what it is doing and what deregulation will mean for charity organisations.”

About Keywords

Keywords was formed in 1986 and is a key player in the direct marketing services sector. The main business of Keywords is the sale of mailing fulfilment services to large blue chip companies and marketing agencies predominately in the UK. Keywords has a professional and dedicated account management team to assist and manage all client activity.

Keywords joined the FT Holdings Group of companies in 2002 which has added to the strength and breadth of capability of its rapidly expanding operations.

www.keywords.co.uk