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The parcel locker business InPost is launching its first customer-to-customer delivery service, in a direct challenge to Royal Mail.
The Poland-based firm, which has 9,200 locker locations in the UK, will this week unveil a parcel delivery service that starts at £1.99, undercutting Royal Mail’s lowest price of £3.25.
InPost has grown quickly, having latched onto anxiety among consumers about falling victim to “porch pirates” who steal parcels left on doorsteps by delivery companies. Some 3,000 of its lockers have been set up in the past year alone.
Until now, however, InPost was available to consumers only when buying goods from an online retailer, or selling through second-hand websites such as Vinted.
Its new concept, “Send”, will allow anyone to dispatch label-less parcels directly to one another by using the InPost app. Consumers will be able to post parcels of up to 15kg by dropping them off at a bank of lockers or other out-of-home sites such as convenience stores.
The parcel, which can be up to 8cm x 38cm x 64cm in size, is then delivered either to another bank of lockers, or out-of-home site; or directly to the recipient’s door.
Amsterdam-listed InPost, which boasts an €8.6 billion (£7.1 billion) market capitalisation, is trying to tap into what company sources claimed was customer frustration with Royal Mail by offering an alternative.
InPost has been gearing up to spread its wings beyond postal lockers, buying Menzies Distribution, the newspaper and magazine distributor and logistics business in October 2024, giving it so-called last-mile capability — the ability to deliver directly to households. Bidders are also circling the ailing delivery firm Yodel, which has endured a difficult 12 months since being sold by the Barclay family last spring.
InPost is planning to invest £600 million in its UK operations by 2029. Its biggest shareholder is PPF Group, the investment firm founded by Petr Kellner, who was the wealthiest person in the Czech Republic at the time of his death in 2021. PPF owns 28.75 per cent of the business.
Royal Mail, in the process of being acquired by Czech energy tycoon Daniel Kretinsky, has responded with the roll-out of its own locker network. Bosses are planning to increase its number of drop-off locations to more than 21,000 this year. This includes 7,500 Parcelshops with Collect+, 1,500 lockers and 1,200 dedicated Parcel Postboxes on the roadside.
The official price for a small parcel of up to 2kg with Royal Mail is £3.25, although smaller parcels that fit through a letter box are cheaper, ranging from £1.55 for 100g, up to £2.50 for 750g.
Neil Kuschel, chief executive of InPost UK, said that the new service demonstrated the company’s “commitment to continually modernising parcel delivery” in Britain.
“Send marks a pivotal moment for both InPost and the wider UK postal market, bringing the parcel experience up to date with consumers’ lifestyles,” he added.
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