Tag: UK Mail

Whitehall ditches UK Royal Mail in favour of cheaper private rivals

Posted by | May 31, 2006 | |

UK Government departments are being told to stop sending letters via the Royal Mail because it does not offer the same value for money as its rivals, despite its huge subsidies. The Government wants to cut GBP30 million from the cost of delivering post and is urging departments and councils to consider using one of the eight private-sector suppliers. The news comes two weeks after the Royal Mail said the Government had given it GBP1.75 billion in emergency help to plug its pension fund deficit and pay for modernisation. The pressure to abandon the Royal Mail is coming from the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), which negotiates business deals on behalf of Whitehall. The man responsible for negotiating with the Royal Mail has told the Treasury Select Committee that the discussions had been “not as fruitful as I would have liked”. Hugh Barrett, the chief executive of OGCbuying.solutions, said: “It is a commercial decision for the Royal Mail to make as to how far they want to lower their prices in response to competition. That is established policy. We are taking advantage of the deregulated market to get the very best deal for taxpayers in that marketplace.”

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Business Post preliminary announcement of unaudited accounts

Posted by | May 23, 2006 | |

Business Post Group plc announces unaudited results for the year ended 31 March 2006 in line with the Trading Update of 31 March 2006. Revenue increased by 19% to GBP 278.2m and profit before tax and exceptional items totalled GBP 11.7m with reported pre-tax profit at GBP 5.0m. Underlying trading was in line with expectations. The Board remains confident of the Group’s long term potential and the prospects for recovery. Accordingly, the Board proposes a final dividend of 10.8p. Parcel services (Express; International; HomeServe) increased revenue by 5% to GBP 195.8m, but pre-exceptional operating profits declined by 43% to GBP 17.4m; operating profit was GBP 11.1m. UK Mail made further excellent progress, increasing revenue four-fold to GBP 40.4m representing 15% of Group total; operating profit was GBP3.2m. Specialist Services (UK Pallets; Courier) made good progress, increasing revenue by 18% to GBP 41.6m. Operating profit was GBP 2.1m.

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Autonomous logistics companies thrive in relaxed postal sector

Posted by | Feb 16, 2006 | |

The newly deregulated postal sector has allowed independent delivery firms Target Express and UK Mail to expand their services. Target has linked with DM production firm Lloyd James for a 5,500-piece campaign. It was the first commercial mailing through its new postal service Target Post. The service incorporates a pre-printed postmark and clients state the priority of each mailing. “The next step in our relationship with Target is to encourage customers to utilise Target Post for their own direct mail projects,” said Lloyd James operations manager Stuart King.Target Post general manager Andrew Harden-Sweetnam added: “The level of early interest has been very positive and we are already in discussions with several other interested parties.”

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UK Royal Mail's rivals deliver new blows

Posted by | Feb 10, 2006 | |

The BBC, banking giants HSBC and HBOS and mobile phone groups O2 and Orange are set to give the Royal Mail the sack – the latest major companies to quit the state-owned postal operator over cost and service levels. The defections are likely to see more than two billion letters handled this year by private postal operators in contracts worth upwards of pounds 300 million. The BBC and O2 are close to taking their business to UK Mail, the postal arm of troubled quoted courier group Business Post. It is understood UK Mail is also vying with main rival TNT to win lucrative work for HSBC, Halifax group HBOS and Orange. UK Mail, TNT and the DHL arm of German giant Deutsche Post are aggressively targeting major corporates to take bulk postal contracts away from Royal Mail.

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UK Postal Services: Postal players deliver

Posted by | Feb 6, 2006 | |

Now that the postal system is in full deregulation, what services are on offer for UK businesses? asks Rob McLuhan. After 350 years Royal Mail has finally lost its stranglehold over the postal market, and judging from the number of firms that have applied for licences, it would seem that operators in the field have been waiting for this moment. In January the postal service became fully deregulated, ending Royal Mail’s monopoly and offering choice to businesses and consumers for the first time. This follows a partial deregulation in 2003 that permitted private operators to deliver business mail in batches of 4,000 or more. The long overdue change is already cutting costs and raising the quality of a service seen by many as indifferent. With savings on offer of about five per cent, and more in some cases, many bulk mailers have jumped at the chance to slash their postal bills for at least part of their needs.

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