Tag: UK Mail

Viapost service to challenge postal operators

Posted by | Sep 3, 2007 | |

Royal Mail and other postal operators will face a new competitive challenge next month, with the launch of a service that promises to cut the cost of business mail and reduce the carbon emissions of sending letters through the post.

Viapost will allow customers to e-mail letters to distribution centres around the country, where they will be printed out, folded and sorted before being handed over to local Royal Mail distribution centres for final delivery to the recipients.

Although Royal Mail will deliver for Viapost over “the final mile”, the new service is likely to take business from its collection and sorting business where t has already lost a large share of the market to competitors such as TNT Post and UK Mail.

The state-owned operator is currently locked in negotiations with the postal union over its modernisation plans, with a deadline of Tuesday for reaching agreement to avoid further strikes.

However, the new service will also pose a threat to Royal Mail’s competitors, since it could prove attractive to the large business mailers that have already switched to private-sector providers but want to reduce their carbon footprint.

The Viapost regional centres will be much closer to the 70 Royal Mail access points that take in post for final delivery and using them will reduce carbon emissions associated with mailings by up to 60 per cent.

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Regulator to let Royal Mail raise price of 2nd class stamps by 17 pct

Posted by | Aug 10, 2007 | |

Royal Mail has been given the go-ahead to increase the price of a second-class stamp to 29p by 2010 but has been told by the postal regulator it must get its act together in order to remain competitive.

Postcomm said that the ball was now firmly in Royal Mail’s court “to address urgently its very high cost base”.

The regulator said it is giving all the help it can to enable Royal Mail to “tackle its deteriorating financial situation” and said that “reining back on competition” was not the answer.

Royal Mail asked Postcomm in March to review prices as it struggles in the face of competition from TNT and UK Mail in an age when email has broadly replaced the letter for personal correspondence. Postcomm had previously said second-class stamps could rise from 24p to 26p.

TNT and UK Mail had also requested Postcomm to look at “access mail”. This is when Royal Mail delivers letters “the final mile” for operators who have already collected and sorted the letters and carried them across the country. TNT and UK Mail believe the prices they pay are too expensive while Royal Mail believes it is too generous.

Postcomm rejected requests to change the status quo and said prices are overall “set at a fair level”.

Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union have committed to reach an agreement by 4 September.

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The Future of UK Postal Services

Posted by | Jun 25, 2007 | |

Now in its sixth year, this conference is firmly established as one of the leading events in the postal calendar. And with Royal Mail’s modernisation programme, the new operators’ increasing market share, the expansion of end-to-end, and Postcomm’s Strategy Review on the agenda, this conference comes at a crucial stage in the development of the market. This event will bring together the leading players in the industry to debate these issues and determine the future of the UK postal services industry

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Business Post's UK postal arm overtaking Parcels

Posted by | Jun 1, 2007 | |

Business Post predicts its UK Mail postal arm will overtake its parcels business in the next three to five years. Chief executive Guy Buswell says that UK Mail generates 27% of the revenue for the company and this fits in line with Business Post’s growth strategy to become “the leading integrated postal operator”.

Business Post’s preliminary results for the year to March 2007 show the company now has a cash balance GBP 12m, up from a GBP 0.4 overdraft in 2006. Group revenue grew by 17% to GBP 326m, from GBP 278m in 2006. Pre-tax profit nudged up to GBP 11.5m in 2007 from GBP 11.4m, while operating profit grew to GBP 12.1m.

But revenue for the company’s parcel business slipped by 1.2% to GBP 194m, while UK Mail’s revenue soared by 124% to GBP 90.3m.

Buswell says the company has “done an awful lot within a year”, referring specifically to the take-back of 11 franchise operations into corporate ownership. “The key thing for us was to take those businesses and turn them around to at least break-even, and we’ve done that,” he says. Business Post has 16 remaining franchise operations, but these are all profitable businesses.

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