Tag: Royal Mail

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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Disposal of surplus Royal Mail property agreed

Posted by | Mar 12, 2007 | |

Royal Mail announced a deal with Land Securities Trillium (LST), a Land Securities Group business, for the disposal of a portfolio of 285 surplus or partially-occupied premises. The deal, which followed a robust competitive process, is a key element in Royal Mail’s drive to increase efficiency and compete effectively in the UK postal market.

Some 108 of the properties are surplus to Royal Mail’s operations and LST will utilise its skills to refurbish these and seek new occupiers. Of the remaining 177 properties only part of the space is being used for operations and these will be leased back to Royal Mail for 15 years at a competitive rent. The properties comprise a total of 265K sq.m. in locations across the UK. This deal will have no impact on Royal Mail or Post Office® operations.

The net proceeds for the portfolio of assets and leasehold liabilities were in excess of GBP 70 million. This represents an excellent deal for Royal Mail that takes advantage of the strength of the UK real estate market to realise value whilst streamlining its operations by removing surplus space from the portfolio with a significant annual saving in costs.

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Royal Mail delivers apprenticeships in Scotland

Posted by | Mar 12, 2007 | |

Royal Mail is set to deliver 30 Apprenticeships in Scotland following receipt of funding from Scottish Enterprise.

The Apprenticeship, developed with Skills for Logistics, provides candidates with a Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ) Level 2 in Mail Services and is specifically aimed at employees dealing with the collection, delivery and processing of mail.

Royal Mail aims to use the Apprenticeship to:
Attract, develop and retain high-calibre postmen and women, and managers of the future.
Improve Key Performance Indicators such as increasing the organisations retention rate and decreasing absenteeism.
Develop business culture by increasing business-minded competence at the front line and improving workforce diversity in terms of age, gender and ethnicity.
Enhance relationships with the aim of encouraging more people to consider a career in Royal Mail and by becoming an employer of choice.

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Postal deal saves public sector GBP 65.5m

Posted by | Mar 9, 2007 | |

The public sector has saved GBP 65.5 million in the past year through a postal deal with Royal Mail.
More than 2,200 public sector organisations have made savings through the arrangement, accounting for a total of GBP 431 million in business for Royal Mail in the current financial year. The National Audit Office ratified the figures earlier this week.

Government buying agency OGCbuying.solutions (OGCbs) initiated the deal, made last April, with support from the OGC. It was the first collaborative contract created with OGC involvement to deliver savings under the government’s procurement efficiency programme. It has since been followed by similar agreements for products such as departmental vehicles and IT hardware.

OGC began the project by conducting an assessment and feasibility study of the postal market. It then initiated the procurement process for a framework agreement in partnership with OGCbs, which manages the contract.

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Support for UK's Post Office gets Brussels approval

Posted by | Mar 8, 2007 | |

A total of GBP313 million of support from the UK government has been authorised by the European Commission in accordance with the EC Treatys rules on state aid.

This is to allow Post Office limited to continue to provide public services for the financial year 2007/08. These include an increasing range of commercial services such as lottery tickets, foreign exchange, telephone and insurance products as well as cash facilities, bill payment, licensing and, of course, Royal Mail, the UKs main postal services provider.

Public services are a vital part of the European economy, and the Commission recognises their importance, said EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Aid can therefore be approved where the amount is strictly limited to what is necessary to cover the costs of public service obligations.

In 2003, the Commission approved a system whereby losses incurred by the entirely state-owned company in providing public service would be covered by government funds and in December 2006, the UK announced the intention to extend this for another year. The amount notified for the financial year beginning 1 April 2007 is GBP313 million (USD460 million).

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