POSITIVITY

Royal Mail has narrowed the decline in letter deliveries thanks to a boost from general election political mailings, but yesterday confirmed that revenues remained under pressure.

Releasing a trading update, the group said total letter revenues fell by a less-thanexpected 4 per cent in the three months to 25 June after the snap election that month.

But with the benefit of the political mailings stripped out, letter volumes still fell 6 per cent in Royal Mail’s first quarter.

Its UK parcels arm continued to help offset the ongoing decline in letters, with volumes up 5 per cent and revenues up 3 per cent. This left overall underlying turnover from the letter and parcels arm 1 per cent lower.

The firm’s Europe-wide parcelsbusinessglscontinuedto see solid growth, with underlying revenues up 6 per cent, but with the benefit of recent acquisitions included, Royal Mail said turnover jumped 18 per cent in the quarter.

Royal Mail said the GLS performance helped drive a 1 per

0 Letter deliveries were given a lift from general election political mailings

MOYA GREENE, CEO cent rise in total group-wide underlying revenues.

Moya Greene, chief executive of Royal Mail, said that, overall, the group had a “good start to our financial year”.

She told investors: “GLS continues to be a driving force for the group. Its ongoing, focused international expansion is increasing our geographic diversification, scale and reach.

“In UK parcels, our quality of service and improved product offerings are driving high levels of customer satisfaction and attracting new customers and higher volumes.

“Our performance in letters was better than we expected, despite continued business uncertainty in the UK.”

She added: “We remain on track to deliver our cost avoidance and net cash investment targets for the full year.”

The update comes after Royal Mail last week sought to avert the threat of strike action byannouncinganewproposal for pension scheme changes.

The privatised group had planned to close its defined

“Our performance in letters was better than we expected, despite continued business uncertainty in the UK”