UK Royal Mail gears up for massive standard life postal vote
Royal Mail will today launch one of the biggest mail operations it has undertaken for a private company when it begins delivering 3.77 million documents and ballot papers to Standard Life members and policy-holders throughout the UK.
The Edinburgh-based financial services giant selected Royal Mail, ahead of competition from other postal operators, to carry out the historic mailing of the documents which will allow members to vote on the company’s demutualisation proposals.
Achieving Standard Life’s aim of getting as many of its members as possible to vote in the ballot is a massive logistical undertaking, which is why the company chose Royal Mail as the only postal operator which can be trusted to deliver on this scale. In Scotland alone, the mailing involves getting the documents to 472,000 members.
The operation involves 3.77 million documents, weighing 300 grams each. This amounts to 1,131 tonnes of mail and to move it requires 3,000 mail cages and over 70 articulated lorries from Royal Mail’s fleet.
The mailing exercise means that Royal Mail’s postmen and women will be delivering around six times more Standard Life documents than they did last year when they delivered around 500,000 copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which had been ordered online.
If the Standard Life documents were laid end-on-end they would stretch around the world approximately 17 times – at 24,000-miles-a-time this equals 408,000 miles of paper.
Royal Mail has been involved in the mailing operation right through from the early planning stages, to collecting and sorting the documents to delivering them through the letter boxes of every Standard Life member in the UK.
Royal Mail swung into action at the weekend, with extra staff on duty over the Easter weekend to prepare the ballot papers for distribution. The main job of distribution begins today(Tues) and will last until Friday when the final papers will be delivered.
The demutualisation ballot is a critical exercise for Standard Life and will dictate its future as a company, with 75% of those who cast their ballot required to vote "yes" if the company is to go ahead with its plan to float on the stock market.
The outcome of this vote will be announced on May 31st 2006. Each Standard Life eligible member also stands to benefit from a financial windfall, typically in the form of shares in Standard Life Plc, if the ballot is a success.
Royal Mail will also be responsible for collecting, sorting and delivering the completed ballot papers, making the company’s role in this crucial event for Standard Life absolutely vital.
The operation proves once again that Royal Mail is the best and most trusted postal operator for all business mailings.
Mike Lloyd, Sales Development Director for Royal Mail, said: "We are absolutely delighted to have won this major contract and to be working with Standard Life on an operation which is of such crucial importance to the company, its members and its future.
"The postal market is now fully open to competition and this is exactly the type of business which other postal operators are targeting, but once again Royal Mail is proving that it is the only company in the country that can be trusted to meet the needs of business, all the way through from initial planning to final delivery, no matter what scale of operation is required.
"We wish Standard Life all the best at this pivotal moment in its history and we will be working round the clock over the rest of this week and in the weeks ahead as the ballots are returned, to ensure Royal Mail plays its role in making this operation a success."
Standard Life has put its faith in Royal Mail because of the company’s unique ability to meet the logistical demands of such a massive mailing operation.
Standard Life Chairman Sir Brian Stewart said: "This is one of the most significant and largest mailing exercises in our history. We are delighted to have the scale, capability and reliability of Royal Mail as our partners in this communication.
"Demutualisation and flotation will give eligible members their share in the value of the business, reduce their exposure to business risks and allow the company to access external equity capital. This will continue the change momentum of the new Standard Life and the board urges voting members to use their vote."
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Notes to editors
Royal Mail delivers more than 80 million items of mail every day.
