Royal Mail posts £1bn loss after year of strife

 

From 3h ago

07.34 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2023/may/18/royal-mail-loss-european-carmakers-post-brexit-rules-bank-of-england-business-live

 

Royal Mail posts £1bn loss after year of strife

 

Royal Mail has reported a loss of over one billion pounds, after a year hit by strikes and poor delivery performance.

 

Parent company International Distributions Services has reported that Royal Mail made a loss of £1.044bn in the year to March, down from a profit of £250m a year earlier.

 

IDS says Royal Mail was hit by industrial action, with workers holding a string of strikes in the last year in a bitter dispute over pay and conditions.

 

IDS blames Royal Mail’s inability to deliver “the in-year benefits of planned productivity improvements”.

 

Weaker online shopping, and a drop in volumes of Covid-19 kits, also hit Royal Mail’s earnings compared with a year ago.

 

IDS warns that the UK’s Universal Service Obligation (USO) – which requires Royal Mail to deliver letters six days a week to every address in the land if necessary – “requires major reform”.

 

It tells shareholders this morning:

 

We urge the Government to work with us to protect the long-term sustainability of the one-price-goes-anywhere Universal Service.

 

Earlier this week, communications regulator Ofcom launched an investigation into poor performance at Royal Mail that could lead to a fine. after more than a quarter of first-class mail was not delivered on time.