Tag: Royal Mail

Only three Crown Post Offices in the whole of the UK are making a profit, highlighting the scale of losses at the network of high street branches, it was revealed today. But despite losses totalling GBP71 million in the last financial year, Royal Mail bosses insisted they only had plans to close around 30 Crown offices in the next five years. Chairman Allan Leighton said five would close next year and six the year after, up to a maximum of 30 over five years out of the current total of 555. The losses equated to GBP127,000 for each Crown office, the Royal Mail boss told MPs on the Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee.

Royal Mail has appointed a new chairman of its pension fund, currently facing a Pounds 2.5bn deficit. Jane Newell, a non-executive director of United Utilities and chairman of three other pension schemes, will lead the fund’s trustees as they try to solve its financial problems. Royal Mail’s pension hole is the result of the fall in the stock market in the late 1990s and the 13-year contributions “holiday” enjoyed by the group on actuarial advice. Actuaries discovered the deficit in March last year and Royal Mail faces payments of as much as Pounds 800m a year to keep the fund going. Ms Newell replaces Roy Chapman, chairman for the past 10 years, who is retiring at the end of the year. Royal Mail said the change had been planned for some time and was not linked to concerns over the size of the deficit.