Tag: UK

Royal Mail's letters market monopoly comes to an end

Posted by | Jan 1, 2006 | |

The Royal Mail’s 350-year monopoly of the UK letters market comes to an end today. New rules now allow rival companies to compete for a share of the multi-million pound market. Postcomm, the postal services regulator, has so far granted long-term licences to 13 operators, who will compete with the Government-owned Royal Mail. Businesses may now abandon the Royal Mail for a cheaper or more flexible service, Postcomm said. The change will also improve the overall standard of service for individual customers – and could lead to the appearance of non-Royal Mail post boxes within a few years, Postcomm said.
The market has been in partial competition since 2003, when Postcomm allowed rival companies to offer mailing services to customers sending 4,000 items or more per mailing. Despite this, the Government-owned Royal Mail still has 97% of the overall postal market, Postcomm said. The changes, which come into force today, will give operators the chance to offer rival services regardless of how many items the user sends.

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UK MPs set to block mail equity handout

Posted by | Jan 1, 2006 | |

The number of MPs to have signed an Early Day Motion opposing Royal Mail’s plan to hand a fifth of its equity to employees has reached 208. Allan Leighton, Royal Mail’s chairman, believes the scheme is a vital incentive to motivate employees and steel the company for full liberalisation of the postal market, which begins today. However, such widespread Parliamentary opposition – made up of nearly all Labour backbenchers entitled to sign, and a third of all MPs – means it will almost certainly be blocked. Any transfer of equity would require primary legislation and 193 Labour MPs have signed the motion, suggesting that a vote would provoke the largest rebellion since Tony Blair came to power. No Conservative MPs have signed the motion, but the party came out against the proposals in November, before David Cameron became leader, and a spokesman said that policy remains in place.

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Rivals seek to block UK Royal Mail's pounds 2bn handout

Posted by | Jan 1, 2006 | |

TNT, a competitor to Royal Mail in the UK, is warning that it will complain to Brussels if the government agrees to put public money into the state-owned postal operator to fund investment. With all restrictions on competition lifted today, Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton believes the group needs pounds 2 billion investment if it is to compete with major international operators such as TNT and DHL Global, part of Deutsche Post. The government is considering a loan or an equity investment styled on a rights issue. However, TNT believes any such move could be anti-competitive and break the rules on state aid. Nick Wells, chief executive of TNT Mail, said: ‘If it is unfair and anti-competitive, we are not going to sit there and watch it happen.’ TNT’s legal adviser, Angus Russell, said there were problems with both arrangements. With a rights issue, the government as the shareholder would subscribe to all shares offered – unlike in the City, where investors can refuse if they think it offers bad value.

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Returns and Retail

Posted by | Jan 1, 2006 | |

Introduction 3
Shoppers and Returns survey 4
High Street shoppers and on-line shopping 4
Why High Street shoppers purchase on-line 5
When High Street shoppers shop least on-line 6
Returns and Shoppers 7
Returns differences across product and channel 8
When do you think goods can be returned? 10
Returns impact on Trading 11
Returns and Consumer understanding of their rights 12
Survey Summary and Conclusions 13

P:LibraryB2CRetail and Returns Survey 2006.doc

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Multi-channel Shopping Survey

Posted by | Jan 1, 2006 | |

Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Objectives & Methodology 1
Summary of Findings 2
Section One: Who Shops Across Multiple Channels? 4
Section Two: Influence of Shopping Channels on Most Recent Purchase 6
Section Three: Awareness and Expectation of Channels Offered 8
Section Four: Channels Actually Used for Purchase and/or Research by Sector 11
Section Five: Habits of Multi-channel Shoppers 13
Section Six: Respondents’ Comments from the Survey 15
P:LibraryB2Cendor Multi-channel Shopping Survey Jan06.pdf

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