Rebrand heralds split for Royal Mail Group | Business

Royal Mail has delivered a profit warning and said that it is changing its name and preparing for a radical demerger of its international business.

On a bumper day of announcements for the company, it also confirmed that a ballot for industrial action by its workers had received the strongest mandate for strike action since trade union laws were tightened six years ago.

That vote, with the explicit support of 86,500 of the 115,000 Royal Mail workers in the Communication Workers Union, was “a vote of no confidence” in the management of the privatised postal delivery group, the union said.

In a trading update for the first quarter of its financial year up to the end of last month, Royal Mail said that its UK