Tag: Royal Mail

DM volumes drop by 2.1% in 2006

Posted by | Mar 14, 2007 | |

Volumes in direct mail are continuing to fall with just over 5bn items sent in 2006, a dip of 2.1%.

Figures from Royal Mail published this week also showed that expenditure dropped by 2.1% to £2.32bn and consumer DM volumes fell by 1.6% to just below 4bn items. Business DM fell 3.6% to just over 1bn.

But over the last quarter of 2006 charities, government and health sectors and building societies boosted their volumes of DM. Charities boosted their use of DM by 9.1% to 132.2m items while the government sent out 17.4m mailings, up by 6%.

Royal Mail market development manager Emily Travis said: “The charity sector has long recognised the benefits of direct mail and these figures reinforce its importance to them as a marketing tool.”

Overall volumes in the fourth sector of 2006 were at 958.6m compared to 1bn in the same period last year.

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UK High Court rejects Royal Mail's appeal against Postcomm

Posted by | Mar 13, 2007 | |

The High Court has upheld the GBP 9.62 million financial penalty Postcomm levied on Royal Mail for failing to protect adequately the mail in its care, following an appeal of the penalty by Royal Mail. The judgment reinforces Postcomm’s position that the fine is proportionate and reflective of the loss suffered by customers.
Royal Mail did not dispute Postcomm’s finding that it breached its licence requirements to keep mail safe and secure, nor that this breach was serious; it appealed only against the level of the financial penalty.
On 24 August 2006, Postcomm imposed a financial penalty of GBP 9.62 million on Royal Mail for breaching its licence by failing to properly protect the mail in its care. The penalty followed a review of Royal Mail’s mail integrity procedures, during which Postcomm found that some important features of Royal Mail’s procedures were not being applied across the business.
The most significant weakness found was the poor management of the recruitment and training process for non-contract (agency) staff. In addition, the framework and information systems that Royal Mail had put in place to prevent the loss, theft or damage of mail were not operating effectively. These weaknesses significantly reduced the company’s ability to protect customers’ mail.

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UK direct mail volumes drop 2.1% in 2006

Posted by | Mar 13, 2007 | |

The volume of direct mail sent last year declined by 2.1% to 5.03bn items, according to Royal Mail.

Expenditure also dropped 2.1% from GBP2.37bn in 2005 to GBP2.32bn in 2006. The figures measure the whole direct mail market and not just those items handled by Royal Mail.

The overall volume figure includes mail addressed to consumers and mail addressed to businesses. Consumer direct mail volume dropped 1.6% to 3.94bn items, while business direct mail dropped 3.6% to 1.09bn.

Providing more detail about the consumer direct mail market, Royal Mail identified which six market sectors that grew in volume: Education grew the most by 10.4%; followed by charity, up 9.5%; leisure and entertainment, up 3.7%; health, up 2.8%; home shopping and mail order, up 1.3%; and “other financial”, up 0.2%.

The number of items sent to 55- to 64-year-olds increased by 11.5% and the number sent to recipients in social class AB climbed 1.1%.

The volume of direct mail sent in the fourth quarter of 2006 was 1.18bn, down 4.6% on the corresponding quarter last

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PayPoint threat to UK Post Office services

Posted by | Mar 12, 2007 | |

Royal Mail, which has been haemorrhaging postal contracts to private sector competitors, faces a fresh challenge to its business with a bid from PayPoint, the payment terminal network, to take over many of the services provided by post offices.

PayPoint, which has taken over the collection of television licence fees from the Post Office, has a bigger network of outlets, which are open longer hours and could process much of the business handled by post offices.

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UK government and health sectors see significant growth in direct mail volumes

Posted by | Mar 12, 2007 | |

Government organisations sent a total 17.47 million mailings in the last quarter of 2006, up from 16.48 million in the same period in 2005, reported Royal Mail.

This strong result illustrates the importance of direct mail to the public sector for communicating important and often complex information and reflects the increase in winter campaigns providing advice on staying warm and healthy during the cold period.

Royal Mail also revealed a rise in the volume of direct mail sent to the 55 – 64 year old age group. In addition to being responsive to direct mail, this generation is also a particularly important target audience for government organisations when relaying information about pensions, benefits and health advice.

Other sectors that performed well include building societies with a year on year volume increase of 18.8 per cent to 15.92 million items. The charity sector also showed strong growth with a volume increase of 9.1 per cent to 132.27 million direct mail pieces.

Overall direct mail volumes during October to December 2006 experienced a slight fall with 958.69 million items sent compared with one billion mail pieces during the same period in 2005. This is a result of companies across all sectors improving their targeting to create even more relevant and personal offers for their customers and prospects.

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