Tag: Royal Mail Group

The Royal Mail has made record profits of GBP 537 million, triggering a bonus of over GBP1,000 for 180,000 postal workers, it was announced.

The state owned operator also revealed that first class mail deliveries were the best in a decade while the number of letters being lost have been cut by half in the past year.

Chairman Allan Leighton said postmen and women had achieved a “fantastic turnaround” and would now benefit from one of the biggest profit shares with employees in UK corporate history.

Every worker will receive GBP1,074, amounting to GBP218 million of the Royal Mail’s profits.

Details of payments to executives will be revealed later although there has been speculation that Chief Executive Adam Crozier was paid almost GBP3 million last year.

Royal Mail could be in line for a GBP 2 billion cash injection if talks between the Department of Trade and Industry and a number of banks are successful.

The DTI was today reported to be in discussions with HSBC, Lazard and Merrill Lynch about the possibility of mounting a rights issue at Royal Mail, which would give the Government more shares in the postal group in return for the investment.

Although the Government is the sole shareholder in Royal Mail, it has only half of the 100,000 shares created when the group became a publicly-owned company five years ago.

Royal Mail kept 50,000 shares but can only allocate them to the Government. The Trade and Industry Secretary received 49,999 shares, while the Treasury solicitor holds both the remaining shares and a separate special share.

The Royal Mail has rejected an all-party call for Scottish stamps already issued to be made available in easy-to-buy books in retail shops.

A spokesman said the cost of issuing 1st and 2nd class Scottish stamps in book form would be “prohibitive” at a time Royal Mail faces competition with door-to-door deliveries in the new year.

The proposal was spelled out in a motion put down by Scottish Liberal Democrat spokesman John Thurso, MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, with the support of Aberdeen North Labour MP Frank Doran, SNP chief whip Pete Wishart, MP for Perth and North Perthshire, and sole Scottish Tory David Mundell, MP for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale.

It congratulated the Royal Mail on issuing country definitive stamps but noted “with concern” that in Scotland they are not available for sale in retail outlets, even in tourist centres, and that there is little public awareness of their availability.

Royal Mail is expected to face demands for a steep rise in postal workers’ pay as the Communication Workers Union launches a campaign to raise pay levels so that they are in line with the national average.

The union wants pay to increase by Pounds 80 a week from the basic level of Pounds 311, a rise of 25 per cent. The CWU will not ask for the Pounds 80 all at once but could make a claim for Pounds 40 next year followed by Pounds 40 the year after.

A spokesman for the CWU said: “We are Pounds 80 a week behind the national average wage. We need to have a fresh look at pay. The talks will be tied up with the future of Royal Mail.”