Royal Mail raises prices amid industrial relations storm

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https://www.printweek.com/news/article/ ... ions-storm

Amid ongoing disruption to delivery schedules Royal Mail has brought forward a swathe of price increases originally slated for next year.


The business is locked in a bitter industrial relations dispute with the Communication Workers Union that has resulted in strike action that began at the end of September, and is set to continue throughout October, November and December.

Royal Mail had been due to put up prices from 3 January 2023.

Instead, prices for advertising mail, business mail, publishing mail, partially addressed mail, poll card mailing, and response services will go up from 7 November.

A Royal Mail spokesperson told Printweek that a number of factors were behind the decision to raise prices two months earlier than planned.

“We have thought long and hard about the price changes we are making. We have brought these changes forward because of unexpected macro-economic trends such as high inflation alongside the unwinding of the exceptionally high volumes of parcels we saw during Covid-19 restrictions,” the spokesperson stated.

“The Universal Service Obligation requires Royal Mail to be able to deliver to 31 million home and business addresses across the UK six days a week. It comes with high fixed costs, especially against a backdrop of high inflation.”

Prices for subscription mail will not change until next year, so existing prices for publishers using Royal Mail’s magazine service remain valid until 3 January 2023.

A direct mail specialist said that the increases ranged from 10% to nearly 18%, causing consternation among print and mailing professionals whose customers had not budgeted for the increase.

“As a customer we just had a very short email notifying us on updates to prices on their website,” the expert said.

“But considering some of these increases are in the region of almost 18% we wondered if there was further justification given to stakeholders and the wider industry. This increase will of course have a significant increase on the wider print sector with regards to printed outbound mail comms.”

More than 40 MPs have also co-signed a letter from Ian Lavery MP, chair of the CWU Parliamentary Group, to Royal Mail CEO Simon Thompson. The letter describes the potential 10,000 job cuts announced last week as “disgraceful” and urged Royal Mail to discuss alternative business plans with the CWU.

Separately, Ofcom is currently carrying out a consultation on proposed changes to strengthen its monitoring regime, which would require Royal Mail to submit an annual view on the financial sustainability of the Universal Service Obligation, and on its progress against efficiency measures. The consultation concludes on 1 November.