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Royal Mail customers have been warned as stamp prices could be hiked even further under a new boss. Royal Mail’s incoming boss suggested that costs could continue to spiral in coming years afte the postal company was bought.
This meant he was unable to rule out price rises for Royal Mail’s services – including stamps. He said: “I can’t make unconditional commitments. If your circulation is 50% of what it was… you either need to go home, or you need to increase the unit price and hope that people will pay for it.”
He added: “Because if not, you are making losses. You can be lossmaking for a year or two, but you can’t be in a loss for 20 years. It’s simple maths. There’s no mystery to it.” The postal service’s parent company, International Distribution Services (IDS), said it had accepted a cash offer from Křetínský’s EP Group.
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The deal means Křetínský, who made his fortune in energy and owns a minority stake in one of the main gas pipelines from Russia into Europe, would pay 360p a share for the 73 per cent of the struggling postal service he does not already own.
“We’ll be looking for pension guarantees, we’ll be looking for a stake for the employees in the future ownership model of the business,” the CWU’s general secretary, Dave Ward, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday.
“I think it’s about testing Křetínský as to whether he’s got any plans for investing in the workforce and investing in growth strategies for the company, or whether his intentions are purely to asset-strip the company.” Křetínský said: “But IDS’s market is evolving quickly, and it must accelerate its transformation and investments into modernisation to keep up with the competition.
“We will support the business in the next critical phase of its transformation and beyond, providing our experience and financial resilience to support the management team.”
