The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
Https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/07/dead-letter-office-royal-mail-wrestles-with-a-difficult-future
Not a great write up but to be expected in my opinion.
Ispy, Broch, regarding the business taking on 500 staff a week since October, it would be interesting to know what contracted hours they are on and what thee retention rate is? Also, I'm assuming that the "two year rule" is still in force for rehiring?
So, part of Thompson's plan was to cut out the deadwood staff with voluntary redundancy or natural wastage and get the rest working harder but under Seidenberg they have been hiring up to 500 extra staff a week since October and then offered a Christmas clearance bonus of up to £500 plus presumably the usual £100 bonus? Have I got this correct?
Derek, I was thinking the same when I read the previous post. Callers offices open from 10am to 2pm are pretty inconvenient for most who work 9am to 5pm, also echoing previous sentiment about "who waits in for a letter" it could also be said "who waits in for the postie to collect your return"? Of course returns can be received by Post Office Counters but perhaps (and rather candidly) the newly touted collection lockers could potentially be utilised for returns? Just a thought.
Bigfatty, I suspect that several million pounds might be enough to start the ball rolling into the tendering stage for an external contractor to supply and install the lockers. Then there's the site locations to be considered. Existing customer service points or car parks in delivery offices or mail centres could be utilised and would be free but many of these are not in convenient locations for the recipient so spaces in shopping centres, bus/rail/tube/service stations etc would need to be considered and rented out. I certainly don't anticipate that it will be a quick process and may require a decent outlay before results can be assessed so RM may well choose a city to carry out a trial before national rollout?
It looks like Amazon has 5,000 lockers (presumably locker locations) across the UK although no idea of initial setup costs, ground rent or timescales for RM?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/12/26/royal-mail-launch-amazon-style-parcel-lockers/#:~:text=Amazon%20currently%20operates%20around%205%2C000,courier%20Evri%20has%20about%201%2C500.
To be honest, given the amount of boxes per unit and locations of the parcel lockers where I live, I really can't see them being a massive threat to the RM workforce? I'm not sure what the average turnover per box per year is in the UK but I'm also sure that someone looking on here would know?
It would probably be easier for RM to have a locker for every residence and a bank of them every couple of hundred yards in residential areas. This way they might just be able to meet their service obligation......lol
Redceo, "imagine the profits IDS could produce if only it were run efficiently". Absolutely.
Perhaps this was the reason why Seidenberg sacked McPherson? Another one who must be skating on thin ice is Chaplain who joined in October 2022, also from JLR so presumably he and McPherson were mates of Thompson as neither had glowing resumes? Incidentally, I am led to believe that it was Chaplain who instructed the RM engineers to manufacture copy written parts. I'm really not sure how these senior managers actually get these posts but the old boy network must be strong?
I am now waiting for the usual posters to come out of the woodwork to call me a deramper, troll or ex employee hater but the fact of the matter is that these things go on within the business. The good news is that they usually have zero impact on the SP.
Redceo, hopefully all may not be lost. These machines are modular in design and are used by several postal administrations in Europe and elsewhere so they may be able to be resold? The good news is that Royal Mail always go for base spec and then try to make modifications in house (a bit like buying the L model and buying the aftermarket parts to turn it into a Ghia X Pack) so the price will be the minimum.
Redceo, unfortunately it looks like the contract was for the full quota of parcel machines plus support from the French engineers and a committment to purchase their spares and warranty returns for a decade. To add to the woes, the onsite French engineers have reported back to their bosses that the RM engineers have been manufacturing spares in house thus breaking copyright although I believe that this was a direct order from the head of engineering who came from JLR along with McPherson. As we know, JLR have recently been caught out fitting second hand spares for warranty work on their vehicles so it is very possible that this is how the current HoE rolls?
I'm not sure what is going to happen now but by all accounts the French are certainly not happy as some of the parcel machines have been built and are awaiting shipment but RM don't really want them plus they currently supply a huge amount of stock for the legacy letter machines.
Following on from Brendyboy's post yesterday, I can confirm that my local mail centre cleared last night and today's letter box collection is anticipated to be very light. The local parcels clearance would appear to be down to the super hubs and parcel sorting machines taking on a large amount, however this success has also brought on a bit of a downside with regards to parcels automation and machinery. At the start of Thompson's tenure, a deal was signed with the French company that supplied our letter sorting and sequencing machines to supply twenty medium to large size parcel machines in mail centres to supplement the existing machines. Only eight machines were installed and it is now believed that the remaining machines will not be necessary going forward so presumably the business is now thinking that full capacity has been reached in the UK parcels market?
Ispy, a nicely constructed post. Not bad for a "minimum wage, brain damaged bum"....lol.
I believe that the original poster, AngerSharkz, was buying in January 2021 when the SP was between 518p and 462p so your estimate of 450p was quite generous but I doubt that AS purchased 10,000 shares at 450p so your estimate of 1,000 shares may well be more accurate so 40p dividend isn't going to cover that loss. Perhaps TMS received an inheritance from AS when he departed which would mean that those shares were "free"?.....lol
To add to my earlier post and regarding my personal post over the last two weeks, RM have delivered quite a few letters and one jiffy bag, Amazon have delivered several parcels but by far the bulk has been delivered by Evri. The poor guy is so busy that he has enlisted the help of his seventeen year old son (now on half term) in order to get through the deliveries. Obviously this is a local snapshot.
Sid, Darkesh, it looks as though the excess Amazon deliveries may be area dependent? Our area is awash with the grey electric vans and RM don't appear to be delivering anything from Amazon but that might be because we have a large Amazon depot about 1½ miles away? I guess the more Rural areas might be impacted more?
Ispy, with regards to casuals, I believe that this is the lowest number that RM have ever taken on so senior management must have been anticipating lower volumes? Unfortunately, low volumes may also equate to potential low volumes of return parcels post Christmas which also isn't good. I only hope that Seidenberg has a plan?
Ispy, I went for Christmas dinner and a few drinks with some of my ex work colleagues on Sunday and they told me that parcels were so light that the casuals were being sent home early however letter box collection mail through the machines were around 8% up on 2019 numbers. I'm not sure if this is just a local issue as Brendyboy was saying that his office was the busiest that it had ever been at the beginning of December?