Tag: UK

Inquiry will back investment claim, says UK Royal Mail chief

Posted by | Jun 5, 2005 | |

Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson is expected to start the Government review into the future of Royal Mail within the next three weeks. Royal Mail has been urging an early start to the review because it believes it will strengthen its case for more cash support from the Government. Chairman Allan Leighton, who is masterminding the privatisation, has said the review will recognise the need for Pounds 2.5 billion of investment.

Read More

UK Royal Mail ‘faces a GBP2bn black hole’ if regulator caps prices

Posted by | Jun 5, 2005 | |

Royal Mail faces a funding shortfall of GBP2bn over the next five years if Postcomm, the postal regulator, succeeds in implementing its plans to curb price increases.

Senior Royal Mail executives have told The Sunday Telegraph that Postcomm’s review will leave it unable to invest in new technology and compete effectively with new entrants to the letters market.

The huge funding shortfall will arise because Postcomm wants to impose strict limits on future increases in stamp prices. Royal Mail has demanded that it should be allowed to increase the price of first class stamps from 30p to 48p by 2010. Postcomm wants to cap the increase at 34p.

“We are trying to reconstruct this business so it is a modern mail service that is profitable, and if it is profitable it can afford to invest back into itself,” said Allan Leighton, the chairman of Royal Mail. “We need to put another pounds 2bn into the business to move it on.”

Read More

UK Postcomm consults on change to Mail Plus licence

Posted by | Jun 3, 2005 | |

Postcomm today issued a consultation notice proposing a change to the postal services licence held by Mail Plus Limited (subsidiary of La Poste France). The company has requested the change, which would enable it to provide mailroom services for customers. In practice, this means it could carry mail within and between customers’ premises, and also transport it to or from other licensed operators’ premises.
Mail Plus was granted its existing licence on 17 February 2005. That enables it to handle bulk mailings of over 4,000 items, and to “consolidate” mail.

Read More

ANALYSIS: Stapleton stands firm over postal wrangles

Posted by | Jun 3, 2005 | |

Recent weeks have seen bitter complaints levelled at Postcomm by Royal Mail, Postwatch and direct marketers alike. So chairman Nigel Stapleton has a tough job trying to find some middle ground. Sebastian Burford reports

By anyone’s standards, Postcomm chairman Nigel Stapleton has had a turbulent few weeks. After squaring up to discontented direct marketers at the recent pricing in proportion (PIP) summit (PM last week), this week began with accusations from Postwatch. The postal watchdog claimed the regulator’s tardy introduction of a liberalised market has skewered Royal Mail’s performance targets and amounted to deliberate “misleading”.

The week ends with Stapleton in a war of words over Postcomm’s call for a domestic price freeze until 2010, which Royal Mail’s chairman Allan Leighton has called a “blueprint for the service’s inexorable decline”. Meanwhile, the dust has yet to settle on Royal Mail’s non-payment of compensation for missing the performance targets from the last Postcomm review.

When Stapleton took over the Postcomm chair from Graham Corbett in November 2003, could he have predicted such a rough ride?

Read More

Postcomm’s Stapleton blasts ‘laughable’ UK Royal Mail GBP2bn loss claim

Posted by | Jun 3, 2005 | |

Postcomm chairman Nigel Stapleton has dismissed as “laughable” Royal Mail’s claim that its proposed price freeze will slash GBP2bn off the company’s market value. The regulator’s review of price and service regulations for 2006 has ignited the row, by ruling Royal Mail cannot raise prices by more than 3 per cent until 2010. Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton says the document is a “blueprint for Royal Mail’s inexorable decline”. Stapleton has countered by accusing the state-owned company of consistently “crying wolf” at proposals. “It thought the last price control was Draconian, and has outperformed it by nearly 100 per cent in profit terms,” he says.

Read More

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

P&P Poll

Loading

Have you noticed a decrease of non-EU inbound parcel volumes since the implementation of the new €3 charge?

Thank you for voting
You have already voted on this poll!
Please select an option!


View ResultsHide Results

Post & Parcel Magazine


Post & Parcel Magazine is our print publication, released 3 times a year. Packed with original content and thought-provoking features, Post & Parcel Magazine is a must-read for those who want the inside track on the industry.

Subscribe to the Magazine

 

Pin It on Pinterest