Royal Mail shares soar as investors cheer delivery slot shake-up
Investors have cheered a move by Royal Mail to compete head-to-head with Amazon by allowing customers to choose timed delivery slots.
Shares in London pared early gains but still closed up up 1.4 per cent at 599p after the postal firm revealed plans for a system allowing customers to pay more to send and receive post at specific times.
Three-tier system
In a video message to its 140,000 staff, seen by The Mail on Sunday, the company said that a new three-tier system of delivery will be launched.
“Longer term, we’re looking at what customers actually need and how we can reflect that in our products,” chief commercial officer Nick Landon said.
“And we want a three-tier product portfolio because three is a magic number. People always like to choose from three.”
A middle tier, expected to be named “My Choice”, will allow customers to choose which day their items will be delivered, with the most expensive tier allowing a time slot option.
Bumper year
Royal Mail saw its annual profit more than double in the last year, bolstered by a surge in parcel deliveries as customers turned to online shopping.
The postal firm last month reported a 116 per cent surge in adjusted operating profit to £702m and a 17 per cent jump in revenue to £12.6bn.
The profit surge followed a series of bumper sales figures as Royal Mail continued to capitalise on the e-commerce boom throughout the pandemic.