Red-letter day looks far away at Royal Mail | Business

As an ardent online shopper, I am reassured by the words “Royal Mail will deliver your parcel”. I once lost a whole weekend searching for a delivery that UPS had lost in the belly of its depot.

As a potential investor, though, Royal Mail brings on a sinking feeling. Impending economic woe doesn’t bode well for demand — and its heavily unionised workforce leaves it little room for manoeuvre on costs.

Many of Royal Mail’s big European rivals have already trimmed their forecasts for this year amid rising costs and bumpy demand. The 500-year-old UK company, though, maintained at its results earlier this month that excising £350 million worth of costs would “mitigate macro-economic pressures”.

That, though, is assuming it can strike a pay deal