Price of first class stamps to rise 9p to 85p

The cost of a first class stamp will rise by 9p to 85p on 1 January, Royal Mail has announced.

A second class stamp will also go up in price, rising by 1p to 66p on the same day.

Prices were raised to their current levels in March. Royal Mail said the latest move was “necessary to help ensure the sustainability” of the universal service.

It said 2020 had been a “challenging year” for the business.

The company added that it had “considered any pricing changes very carefully” owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Royal Mail Announces Big Price Increase in 1st & 2nd Class Stamps

The Royal Mail is increasing the cost of postage, with first-class stamps rising 6p to 76p and second-class up 4p to 65p.

Prices will climb from 23 March, less than a year after they were hiked to their current levels.

The 65p second-class stamp is the maximum under an Ofcom price cap.

“These changes are necessary to help ensure the sustainability of the one-price-goes-anywhere Universal Service,” Royal Mail said.

It blamed the increases on “a challenging business environment”.

Tough market

Stephen Agar, managing director of letters at Royal Mail said: “We are operating in a tough market at present, under the threat of making a loss by 2021. These price increases will help us maintain the quality of service that is expected by our customers,”

The likelihood has increased that Royal Mail in the UK will be loss-making in 2020-21, the company said in a statement, adding: “We want to invest £1.8bn in the UK to turnaround, grow and sustain the Universal Service.”

Royal Mail Delivers a Price Rise Blunder

Royal Mail has apologised after announcing a price rise which breaches a cap designed to make the postal service “affordable” for all consumers.

From 25 March, the price of a second-class stamp will rise by 3p to 61p – breaching Ofcom’s current price cap of 60p which is in place until 1 April.

The price of a first-class stamp will also increase by 3p to 70p.

Royal Mail says it will donate the extra revenue, expected to be £60,000, to charity Action for Children.

Royal Mail criticised for D-Day stamp mix-up

Royal Mail has withdrawn a stamp design marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day – after BBC News pointed out it showed US troops landing in what was Dutch New Guinea, nearly 8,500 miles from France.

The stamp was due to be released next year in a “Best of British” collection.

Captioned “Allied soldiers and medics wade ashore”, it was said to depict the Normandy landings but was actually taken in what is modern-day Indonesia.

People who saw the error in a social media preview called it “embarrassing”.

The image appears on the American National WWII Museum website, attributed to the US Coast Guard, and is said to show troops carrying stretchers from a landing craft at Sarmi, Dutch New Guinea on 17 May 1944.

The D-Day landings did not take place until 6 June that year, when British, US and Canadian forces landed on the beaches of northern France.

The landings were the first stage of Operation Overlord – the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe – and were intended to end World War Two.

Royal Mail Last Posting Dates for Christmas 2018

Royal Mail have announced their last posting dates for December 2018

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/christmas/last-posting-dates

Royal Mail pays old boss £900k to leave & new boss £5.8m ‘Golden Hello’!

MPs have written to the Royal Mail board demanding answers about a £5.8m payout to new chief executive Rico Back after 70 per cent of the privatised company’s shareholders rejected his remuneration.

Rachel Reeves, chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, said she was “surprised” to learn about the fee Royal Mail is paying to Mr Back, which was disclosed only as a note on the company’s accounts, not in its remuneration report.

In a letter to Orna Ni-Chionna, chair of Royal Mail’s remuneration committee, Ms Reeves asked why the company was also paying Mr Back 17 per cent more in basic salary than his predecessor Moya Greene.

Royal Mail argued that Ms Greene was paid more in pension contributions so the overall fixed remuneration was the same, but it conceded that Mr Back “could get more overall compensation than Moya, because annual and long-term bonuses are calculated on salary”.

Mr Back’s total remuneration this year could be up to £2.7m, in addition to the £5.8m he is being awarded on joining the company. Ms Greene is pocketing a £900,000 “golden parachute” payment.

Last week, at Royal Mail’s annual general meeting in Sheffield, 70 per cent of shareholders rejected the pay deal.

Responding to the non-binding vote, the board said it would consult further when it reviews its remuneration policy later this year.

Royal Mail shares plunge after delivering profit warning

Royal Mail shares ended 18% lower on Monday after it warned on profits in an unscheduled trading update.

The post and parcel firm said cost savings would be just £100m this year rather than the £230m forecast.

Addressed letter volume fell by 7% in the first half of the year, while productivity performance was “significantly below plan”.

Adjusted operating profit before transformation costs would be between £500m and £550m as a result.

That is significantly lower than the £694m posted last year.

Royal Mail fined record £50m by Ofcom

Ofcom has fined Royal Mail a record £50m for breaching competition law.

The fine is for its actions in 2014 when Whistl, which was then known as TNT, was trying to become its first competitor in wholesale mail delivery.

The regulator’s investigation, which followed a complaint by Whistl, said Royal Mail had abused its dominant market position and discriminated against the company.

Whistl is seeking damages, but Royal Mail said it will challenge the fine.

Ofcom’s investigation found that Royal Mail price rises in 2014 meant any of its wholesale customers such as Whistl that wanted to compete with it would have to pay higher prices in the remaining areas where it used Royal Mail for delivery.

Ofcom’s investigation found that Royal Mail’s actions amounted to “anti-competitive discrimination against customers, such as Whistl, who sought to deliver bulk mail”.

Royal Mail apologises after Toto eats the Tin Man’s autograph

An autograph collector lost two celebrity autographs after his dog ripped them up when the postman put them through the letter box rather than asking for a signature.

Bryan Garner, 38, of Sutton-in-Ashfield, was expecting the delivery of a “rare” signed autograph from famous Superman actor Christopher Reeve.

The item was supposed to be delivered via Royal Mail’s Signed For service, which means its should have been signed for, rather than posted through the letter box.

However when it arrived on Tuesday, February 6, he said the postman signed for it, rather than knocking on the door to collect a signature, and put it through the letter box.

This meant his small pet dog called Toto reached the mail before his wife and tore up the autograph, which he estimates was “easily worth a couple of hundred pounds”.

Royal Mail announces 2018 stamp price rise

The price of a First Class stamp will increase from 65p to 67p, a 3.05% price rise. A Second Class stamp will go from 56p to 58p, a 3.57% increase.

A large letter First Class stamp meanwhile, will rise by 3p to £1.01 (a 3.06% increase). A large letter Second Class Stamp will rise by 3p to 79p (a 3.9% increase).

In monetary terms, all these increases appear small, but they’re higher than the rate of inflation. This will be of most concern to regular postal users and small businesses that rely on Royal Mail to send important documents and packages.

However, one way to get around the increase is to buy stamps before prices rise on 26 March, as they will still be valid for use even if they were purchased at the cheaper price.

←Older