Homeserve deals Royal Mail another blow

Homeserve, the emergency policy and repair business, has handed TNT Post its mailing contract, signaling another blow to Royal Mail.

The deal, which will see Homeserve move its business from Royal Mail to TNT, is due to competitive prices and TNT’s clearer view of its business delivery service.

The move will cause another blow to Royal Mail – already in the midst of internal turmoil – as Homeserve is just one of the many businesses that has moved its business out of the postal operator in the past year. Royal Mail lost out to TNT for Emap’s GBP 1.6m subscriptions contract in August and BT’s delivery of The Phone Book contract in April (precisionmarketing.co.uk).

The repeated loss of business and necessity to keep up with competition is one of the main reasons why Royal Mail wants to modernise its business, which has resulted in weeks of postal strikes recently (precisionmarketing.co.uk).

TNT also handles contracts from customers including Centrica, Lloyds TSB, HBOS and Barclays.