Royal Mail Reports £319m Half-Year Loss Amid Strikes and Decline in Letter Sending

Parent company IDS expects to break even this fiscal year, while CEO calls for urgent reform of Universal Service obligations.

Royal Mail reports a £319m loss for the first half of the year, a deepening of £100m compared to the same period in 2022.
Strikes over pay and working conditions, along with a decline in letter sending, are cited as the main causes for the losses.
Parcel deliveries declined by 6% to £1.85bn in the first half due to lower volumes and customers trading down to cheaper services.
Royal Mail's parent company, International Distributions Services (IDS), expects to break even this fiscal year and pay a small dividend.
IDS CEO Martin Seidenberg calls for reform of Royal Mail's Universal Service obligations, citing the unsustainability of maintaining a network built for 20 billion letters when only 7 billion are now being delivered.