Royal Mail scores a leap in parcels after festive boost

Royal Mail beat the competition on parcel deliveries over the key Christmas period, with parcel volumes up 4% on last year for the first nine months.

The increase in volumes followed a succession of contract wins with retailers including John Lewis and House of Fraser, which allowed the postal group to benefit from the boom in online shopping over the festive period.

In December alone it delivered 130 million parcels, 6% or 7.5 million higher than last year.

The company’s European courier business, GLS, which operates in Germany, France, Italy and Poland, also outperformed expectations with volumes 11% higher.

Royal Mail has previously warned of challenging market conditions for the European business, but said that it no longer expected margins in GLS to decline.