Royal Mail Group is opening three new depots at Chorley, Cornwall and Hampshire as part of a £75 million investment in its UK express parcels business, Parcelforce Worldwide.
Over the next four years the investment will allow 1,000 new UK jobs, nine existing depots will be expanded or moved to larger sites and IT will be upgraded.
A new parcel processing centre will be opened in Chorley in autumn 2013 in addition to the existing hub in Coventry. New depots will be opened in Cornwall and Hampshire with a further nine existing depots either expanded or moved to larger sites over the next four years.
In the last reported financial year its parcels businesses took £4.2 billion, which is 48 per cent of its total revenues excluding Post Office Ltd. Royal Mail Group has three parcels networks in the UK: Royal Mail’s UK parcels operation; Parcelforce Worldwide and Royal Mail Specialist Services.
[asset_ref id=”1867″] Greene
Chief executive Moya Greene said: “Our £75 million investment is part of Royal Mail Group’s strategy to grow its parcels businesses in the UK and overseas. Our strategy is to convert the rise in parcel volumes into profitable growth. That means becoming a much more customer-focused company being run on commercial lines and investing in new, vital technology.”
“The investment will enable Royal Mail Group’s express parcels business to meet the rapid growth in demand in the business-to-business, business-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer markets.”
It reckons the total UK express parcels market is currently worth £5.8 billion a year or 1.1 billion items, and that that online retailing will account for 12.4 per cent of GDP in 2016.
