Strike aids UK Mail Post bid
Wildcat postal strikers have aided Birmingham parcels group Business Post’s bid to break into the Royal Mail’s £5 billion monopoly, the company’s boss said.
Paul Carvell criticised the recent stoppages which brought mail services, especially in London, as a ‘bloody nuisance’.
But he warned workers that all the disputes had done was boost his company’s case in the government’s eyes for taking a slice of Royal Mail’s currently protected market.
Business Post subsidiary UK Mail has applied to run a business mail service under licence from regulator Postcomm which would use the state-owned firm’s own delivery service.
Mr Carvell said he was hopeful of a decision over tariffs he would be charged by Christmas and believed the service could be up and running by next April.
He said the unofficial strikes had caused his own business disruption from invoices not being delivered.
But he added: ‘The government and great and good in the Department of Trade and Industry must have realised that competition is required and these events can only add momentum to the process.’
A target of taking three per cent of the Royal Mail’s turnover in three years has been set by Business Post, but the £150 million involved would double the company’s turnover, Mr Carvell said.
His optimism was matched as he unveiled the group’s ‘pretty fantastic’ half-year figures showing the business had sealed a 16% leap in operating profits to £7.9 million from £6.8 million last time.
Expansion was boosted by twin Midlands acquisitions, including that of Lichfieldbased Weaver Pallet Express, just rebranded as UK Pallets. Mr Carvell said the business was ‘confounding everyone’ by growing at 39-40% and was looking to take its workforce from 150 to 200 with a search for a new hub in the Staffordshire city.
