MAILROOM
industry insights and news from Citipost Mail
Welcome to the Mailroom - Issue 2
Welcome back to our newsletter: The Mailroom. We are thrilled to have you with us for this second edition. After receiving such fantastic feedback on our first edition, we have expanded our content to provide you with more industry insights, updates, and industry-leading information to help you connect effectively with your customers.
We have had a very productive second quarter here at Citipost Mail, continuing to help our clients enhance and implement their marketing and communication strategies through our range of services: Pure Data, Citicreative, Print, Global, and of course, Mail.
There has also been a lot of activity in our industry over recent months, particularly with the proposed changes at Royal Mail that could affect their ownership and delivery frequency. As always, we are committed to keeping you informed on these changes and advocating for the best interests of our customers during their ongoing consultations.
Recently, we released our annual Mailing House survey to ask our clients for their feedback on our services. Thank you to those of you who have taken the time to complete this: we greatly value your input and will use your feedback to enhance our offering and continue to develop our service.
In the coming month, we will also be issuing our annual client satisfaction survey and seeking feedback from all our clients, so please keep an eye out for that.
As part of our commitment to champion causes that positively impact our industry, we are also delighted to share that we will be supporting a significant research project through our partnership with the Independent Print Industry Association (IPIA). Look out for some groundbreaking updates and insights on this in the months ahead.
Thank you for your continued support and our experts are here if you need any help with your peak campaigns.
Lesley Yeomans Deputy Managing Director
The Sale of Royal Mail
On 29th May 2024, the International Distribution Services (IDS) Board agreed to recommend to its shareholders an offer by Daniel Kretinsky's EP Group of £3.70p a share. Kretinsky already owns 27.6% of Royal Mail.
To smooth the passage for the deal, Kretinsky has offered a series of time-limited guarantees including the retention of the Royal Mail logo, its UK headquarters, and its UK tax base. He has also offered to honour current employment agreements with unions and promised not to split off General Logistics Systems (GLS), the profitable parcels business, which IDS also owns.
As yet, the new Government’s position on this offer is unknown, though Kretinsky has recently had meetings with both the new Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and the Communication Workers Union (CWU). Labour had said in its manifesto that any proposed takeover would be “robustly scrutinised” and ensured “appropriate guarantees are forthcoming that protect the interests of the workforce, customers, and the United Kingdom”.
IDS - Royal Mail - shares are currently trading around £3.30 - £3.40 a share, quite a bit below the offer price of £3.70. This suggests that the markets are unsure whether the deal will eventually go through.
In conclusion, the proposed offer by Daniel Kretinsky’s EP Group to acquire IDS at £3.70 per share marks a significant, potential shift for the company and its shareholders. Despite the appealing offer and the assurances provided by Kretinsky regarding the retention of the Royal Mail's key elements and employment agreements, uncertainty lingers. The market's scepticism, reflected in the current share price, and the unknown stance of the new Government, underscores the complexity and the stakes involved in this transaction. As the process unfolds, all eyes will be on the responses from institutional investors and regulatory bodies, determining whether Kretinsky’s bid will ultimately be successful and shape the future of Royal Mail and its stakeholders.
NEW: The Royal Mail Catalogue Mail Incentive
Royal Mail have launched a time limited new incentive, aimed at supporting the incremental growth of Catalogue mail campaigns.
Royal Mail's Marketreach research and report, written in collaboration with Retail Week, reveals that catalogues can convert browsers into buyers, with 55% making a purchase after seeing something in a catalogue.
Available to apply for now, here is a short summary of the key incentive points:
1. Under the new incentive, participants posting Catalogue Mail across September 2024 to January 2025 can benefit from retrospective postage credits of up to 22.5% for incremental volumes and 1.5% for planned volume.
2. To qualify, mailings must include either a minimum of 100,000 incremental Catalogue Mail items, or 2.5% of the planned catalogues, whichever is the greater.
3. The last posting date to qualify for this incentive will be 1 February 2025. Customers must submit their applications for this incentive by 6 January 2025 at the latest.
Find out more: https://www.citipostmail.co.uk/new-the-royal-mail-catalogue-incentive/
ALWAYS LEARNING
Christmas Campaigns
OTHER INDUSTRY LEADING BLOGS
Top Tips to Save Money on Your Mail Campaigns from our Industry Experts
To read this in full click here
Industry Insight: Things to Consider when Mailing Overseas – Guy Cliffe
To read this in full click here
Direct Mail Beats the Christmas Rush: The statistics that prove you need to include Direct Mail in your Christmas campaign
To read this in full click here
It’s now the time to start thinking again about your Christmas campaigns. In case you missed it, you can watch the JIC Mail Christmas Campaign Planning Webinar to see how mail stimulated commercial actions for the major Supermarkets and Retailers in 2023. For more information click here
The New Royal Mail Service: Mailmark Catalogue
Available from the 1st of July 2024, a Mailmark variant of the Advertising Mail Catalogue Service has been introduced.
Using the Mailmark Catalogue service, customers can merge technology and business information together. The Mailmark barcode technology offers data insights - showing detailed batch-level reporting on predicted delivery, volume and performance as well as item-level error information.
The Mailmark service, in general, is also one of the lowest-priced service options. Merging this service with the catalogue service aims to help customers gain greater returns from their catalogue mailings, by giving them the scope to either increase pagination or sell additional inserts with small price increments.
10g price steps have been introduced to support customers to generate greater returns from their catalogue mailings. Some ideas on how this can be achieved are:
• By increasing pagination at a smaller price increase
• By adding additional inserts with small price increments
• By Improving paper quality
Available Services/Formats
The below services and weights are available on the Mailmark Catalogue service:
Mailmark Catalogue Service Eligibility
A mail campaign could be eligible if: 1. The mailing primarily comprises a list of goods and/or services, together with a description, image and price; 2. The goods and/or services are sold directly from the page at the prices listed; 3. The editorial and other content of the mailing is minimal; and 4. It meets the full Mailmark specification and criteria. Contact our team today for more information, or scan the code to read the full guide.
To read the full guide click here
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puredata@citipost.co.uk
Ofcom updates Royal Mail’s Universal Service Obligation
On Thursday 5th September, Ofcom released an interim document outlining their initial views on planned reform to the Universal Service and Royal Mail’s operational schedules. After reviewing over 2000 submissions from user groups, the document indicates a likely change to the delivery frequency of second class and access (DSA) mail.
What is the Universal Service Obligation?
The “USO” is the obligation placed upon Royal Mail to deliver 1st and 2nd class letters, six days a week, at a ‘one price goes anywhere’ tariff. 1st class letters are supposed to be delivered the next day, no less than 93% of the time. Royal Mail also has an obligation to deliver parcels. Currently, only 2nd class letters have a regulatory price control. Technically the majority of letters that are posted through an Access operator (such as Citipost Mail) fall outside the USO, but Access letters are still dependent on Royal Mail’s USO network for delivery.
Why is Ofcom reviewing the scope of the USO?
In recent years, Royal Mail has been losing a lot of money, while the quality of service they have been achieving has not been good enough. At the half-year 2023-2024, Royal Mail made an operating loss of £319m.
What next?
Ofcom claim that no decision has been made yet as they continue to review a menu of possible changes before publishing more detailed plans early next year. A final decision on reform including pricing and quality of service is due by the summer of 2025.
To continue to keep you informed, Citipost Mail will be hosting a webinar in September.
Keep your eyes peeled on our Linkedin for more information - click here
We are proud to be carbon-neutral verified for the second year running!
As part of our ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility, we are thrilled to announce that Citipost Mail is now a carbonneutral business for a second consecutive year.
This achievement reflects our dedication to minimising our environmental impact and taking decisive action to address the challenges of climate change.
Conscious steps we have taken Emission Reduction Strategies: Through the implementation of innovative and sustainable practices, we have significantly reduced our carbon emissions across various aspects of our business.
Renewable Energy Adoption: We have transitioned to renewable energy sources wherever possible, ensuring that our energy consumption is now sourced from clean and sustainable alternatives.
Offsetting Carbon Emissions: For the unavoidable emissions we couldn’t eliminate entirely, we have invested in high-quality carbon offsetting projects that promote reforestation, renewable energy, and other climate-positive initiatives.
Our proactive and collaborative measures have resulted in a reduction of our business carbon footprint to the extent of 31.72%, well above our original reduction target for that period.
Sustainability is an ongoing journey. At Citipost Mail, we will continue to set ambitious targets, seek new opportunities to reduce our environmental impact and work together to create a greener future.
UK’s Best Work Places
We are thrilled to share that we've clinched spot 8 in the UK’s Best Workplaces for Women, spot 12 in the UK’s Best Workplaces for Employee Wellbeing and spot 18 in the UK's Best Workplaces for Development™ 2024 lists! Creating a nurturing and safe environment for all our Citipost Mail staff is a key part of our company culture and we are delighted to be recognised for our commitment to this.
The Outcome
Rising Star Print Awards
We are absolutely delighted to announce that four members of our team have been awarded the Rising Star Award from The Printing Charity.
A huge congratulations to Jessica Wallace (Head of Client Services), Alexia Bush (Client Services), Cherrelle Wright (Head of Service Delivery) and Lori Straw (Service Delivery Supervisor).
The Rising Star Award recognises colleagues, aged 18-30, in roles within print, paper, packaging, publishing and graphics. Winners are awarded with £1,500 funding for further development through the scheme. Well done to our fabulous team – and good luck with your studies!
INDUSTRY INSIGHTS & RESEARCH
New Mailmark: ‘Out of Specification’ Surcharge Classification
From 2nd September 2024, any Mailmark items that do not attain the minimum sorting machine read-rate will be analysed and could be charged a higher service rate by Royal Mail. The difference in these service rates could be significant, and therefore we would like to help you minimise or avoid any such surcharges.
What are ‘Out of Specification’ charges?
Mailmark letters and large letters which do not meet the specification for the services they were posted against, through design or construction, will incur the Out of Specification conversion charge if they cannot be:
• Processed on the correct machine(s)to achieve the minimum expected read rate And/ or
• They have to be manually sorted at Royal Mail
The charge applied will be the difference between the manifested service and the service in which the mail campaign items were processed on.
We have created a full guide to help you understand the new Royal Mail surcharge categorisation and common processing issues, along with a FAQ document to answer any questions you may have.
What are the new surcharges?
For more information click here
Common Mailmark Processing Issues
For more information click here
FAQs click here
Jessica Wallace
This issue, get to know our Head of Client Services, Jessica Wallace, a little bit better! Jessica has been in the Citipost family for 10 years, working in different roles in the business before being promoted into her current role in January 2023.
Jess, how did you get into client services?
By accident really… I originally wanted to be a Politics teacher!
I started work at Citipost via an agency, for some work experience before leaving for university. I loved it so much that I attended Goldsmith’s University in London for all of 8 weeks and decided I wanted to pursue a career with Citipost Mail. I returned from University on a Thursday and by the following Monday I was back in my old seat and that is where the journey started.
What is your greatest professional achievement?
My greatest achievement is rising through the ranks at Citipost Mail. It just goes to show that if you work hard and are passionate about what you do, it all pays off. Another one of my greatest achievements was receiving a ‘Highly Commended Young Leader Award’ from the IPIA Recognising Excellence Awards 2023. This was so early in my leadership career and it was so nice to see that in such a short period of time, I had already made an impact.
What are the latest developments in the client services team?
We’ve finalised plans recently for some staffing changes. There will be an additional Client Relationship Manager coming on board, someone who is familiar to our clients already so that is very exciting. We also have big plans to improve the client journey and experience in the coming months so watch this space!
What do you like to do outside of your working day?
About a year ago I dusted off my dancing shoes and returned to my out-of-work passion. Dancing allows me to switch off from work because, to be honest, I cannot think of much more than moving my left and right feet to the music. I also spend a lot of time out walking my dog with my husband, another great activity to switch off from the real world.
What makes you laugh?
The client service team, daily! There is such a mix of personalities that just complement each other so well.
Where is your favourite place in the world?
Anywhere that the sun shines and the beer is cold!
CREATIVE, DATA, PRINT & MAIL SERVICES
Explore our range of products and services to support you with every step of your marketing journey: