Royal Mail in post 'bundling' gaffe

Red-faced Royal Mail bosses have been forced to deny they are launching a new postal service, which would see consumers opt in to receive bundled direct mail, after one executive publicly suggested the scheme was in the pipeline.

Royal Mail head of media propositions Fraser Chisholm was speaking at a conference in central London last week, entitled DM Personalisation, at which a pre-recorded interview with OgilvyOne vice-chairman and creative director Rory Sutherland was aired.

Sutherland joked that, if pricing in proportion (PIP) forced brand owners to standardise their mailings, Royal Mail might as well bundle up all direct mail, place it in a big envelope and deliver it to households once a week.

Chisholm is understood to have admitted that the postal operator was already considering such a scheme.

But a Royal Mail spokesman, who admits he was not at the conference, refutes this version of events. He claims Chisholm was talking about a new sampling service that the postal operator is planning, saying: “Conference delegates were obviously confused.”

Should the bundled direct mail plan go ahead, it could face resistance from some agencies and brand owners.

One industry source says: “I can’t see how clients would want their direct mail included in a bundle with competitors’ mailshots.

“Imagine if you were in financial services and you knew your rival was offering a lower interest rate than you – the last thing you’d want would be to be in the same ‘envelope’.”

The move comes as fears escalate over summer strike action by the Communications Workers Union (CWU), following its decision to ballot members on holding a walkout.

The industrial dispute centres on the company’s pay offer and the future of more than 40,000 of the CWU’s 136,000 members.

The union has balked at the management’s offer of a 2.9 per cent pay increase, although it will not officially give notice of its decision to hold a strike ballot until July 3.

CWU general secretary Billy Hayes says: “Imposing an un-agreed pay rise was always going to create conflict. This is a serious decision, but the union has provided a window of a week for Royal Mail to use its energies to reach a settlement with our negotiating team.”