Online appetite delivers goods for UK Mail

UK Mail Group said revenue for the quarter to the end of December saw a six per cent year-on-year rise, boosted by an increase in parcel deliveries as consumers went online to do their Christmas shopping.

The company said volumes delivered by its parcels business rose 15 per cent in the quarter compared to a year earlier.

The increase reflects a 19.2 per cent increase in online sales of non-food products in the UK in December, the highest growth in four years, according to a British Retail Consortium (BRC) survey carried out by KPMG.

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The BRC survey showed that one in five non-food products were bought online in December, helped by a surge in the use of smartphones and tablets.

Guy Buswell, chief executive of UK Mail, said: “I am pleased to report we have again performed well during our peak Christmas trading period, maintaining our strong customer service levels even as volumes continued to rise.

“It is clear from weekly volume patterns that shoppers were, more than ever before, leaving their online Christmas shopping to the last minute, as consumers increasingly trust that online deliveries will arrive on time, as promised. This underlines the importance of our leading consumer-friendly services in which we continue to invest.”

UK Mail said that its mail business achieved “good revenue growth”, due to a further increase in mail volumes. “This growth continues to be driven by strong customer retention and new customer wins,” said the firm.

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The company’s courier business saw a slight decline in revenues, and its pallets business also saw a decline in revenues for the period.

UK Mail said: “We continue to invest in developing our pallets network in order to return to the sales levels previously achieved.”

“The group remains in a sound financial position”, it added.

Mr Buswell said: “We are making good progress with the strategic investment in our business. As previously announced, we have now received planning permission for our new central sortation hub near Coventry and our new one-hour delivery window project is on target for implementation in the spring of 2014.”

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