Tag: Royal Mail

Royal Mail is urging UK businesses to take advantage of a financial rebate that will be available when its new Pricing in Proportion (PiP) system is introduced on 21 August 2006. The rebate is available to businesses that spend more than GBP100,000 on postage annually and expect to experience a rise in costs of over 50 per cent – based on usage from 7th April 2005 to 5th April 2006 – when the new pricing system is introduced. A refund of 40 per cent of the price increase will be available in the first year, and 20 per cent in the second year. Lorna Clarkson, Royal Mail’s director of pricing, explained: “Although 80 per cent of business mail will be the same price or cheaper to send when PiP is introduced in August, we are doing everything we can to support customers with the small proportion of mail that will be more expensive to send.”

Royal Mail has appointed JPMorgan as the sole global custodian of its GBP22bn assets. The deal sees JPMorgan Worldwide Securities Services snatch Bank of New York’s (BNY) GBP2.2bn holding. The move comes after reports of a huge shortfall in Royal Mail’s pension scheme, totalling as much as GBP56bn.

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.