Royal Mail delivers bumper postbag of 2.1bn items

The Christmas postbag increased by 50 million items this year despite the popularity of emails, Royal Mail said today.

It delivered 2.1 billion items this year, while Parcelforce Worldwide, part of Royal Mail, handled nearly 12 million packages, up by around 500,000 on last year.

To illustrate the growing use of Internet shopping, Royal Mail said it delivered an estimated 10 million items ordered in this way, up by 40% on last Christmas.

Gillian Wilmot, Royal Mail managing director, said: “This Christmas has been very successful for Royal Mail and has shown that traditional mail is still playing an integral role in the festivities enjoyed by everyone.”

Vanessa Leeson, managing director of Parcelforce Worldwide, added: “We recorded our busiest Christmas ever and delivered an excellent service to customers sending parcels to this country or across the globe.”

Royal Mail also said it delivered more than 750,000 letters addressed to Santa Claus.