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Royal Mail has announced a number of changes this year
Royal Mail has provided an update on a major schedule change announced this year. The mailing service announced in July it will be scrapping its Saturday deliveries for second-class post and switch to an alternate weekday service instead.
The owner of Royal Mail has now said it will take “many months” to roll out changes that will see it ditch second class letter deliveries on Saturdays across the UK. The regulator Ofcom said that from July 28, Royal Mail will be able to axe the six-day-a-week service for second-class letters.
According to Ofcom, the changes come after a lengthy consultation and will help Royal Mail cut costs by between £250 million and £425 million a year.
Ofcom has also launched a review of the price of stamps amid concerns over affordability. A consultation set to be launched next year. Martin Seidenberg, group chief executive of Royal Mail parent firm International Distribution Services (IDS), welcomed the move from Ofcom.
Under its Universal Service Obligation, Royal Mail must keep Monday to Saturday deliveries for first-class post and maintain the target for second-class letters to arrive within three working days.
International Distribution Services (IDS) – which saw its £3.6bn takeover by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky’s EP Group complete in June – said it was yet to start expanding the reforms outside of the pilot already running across 35 delivery offices.
IDS chief executive Martin Seidenberg said it was a “massive task ahead of us” that will be continuing well into 2026. He said: “We will take the time to get this right.
“We owe it to our customers that we are not flipping back and forth.” He added the group had “always said it would take many months”.
IDS said it was too early to say when the changes will be completed and which of its 1,200 delivery offices would be next in line for the overhaul.
The comments came as Royal Mail revealed it returned to an underlying operating profit for the first time in three years despite a “competitive and challenging” backdrop.
In its first set of figures since being taken over by EP Group, IDS said Royal Mail delivered underlying earnings, excluding voluntary redundancy costs, of £12 million for the year to March 31 compared with losses of £336 million the previous year.
With redundancy costs included, Royal Mail still remained in the red with underlying operating losses of £8 million, it said. IDS said the underlying improvement at Royal Mail came “despite an increasingly competitive and challenging trading environment”.
The wider group, which also owns the GLS parcel business, reported underlying earnings of £278 million, against losses of £28 million in the previous year. Pre-tax profits stood at £429 million, up from £114 million in the 53 weeks to March 2024.
Mr Seidenberg said: “It has been a year of change for IDS.” He added: “Royal Mail returned to profit for the first time in three years, marking an important milestone in the company’s turnaround. With IDS’s acquisition by EP Group complete, and universal service reform decided, now is the time for us to drive the business forward and capitalise on our momentum.”
A second change announced by Royal Mail is that people who deliver parcels will soon see a major change to the postboxes they can use. Royal Mail has announced 3,500 solar-powered postboxes that will have a digitally-activated drop-down drawer.
The change means that customers can send parcels as large as a shoebox. The new postboxes will be installed across the UK, with the Post Office describing it as the biggest change to the postbox in its history.
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