Winning in parcels

Winning in parcels is a key element of our strategy. Parcels growth is crucial to the future success of our company and we’ve made a significant investment in the design and installation of parcel sortation machines (PSMs) for selected plants.

With the instalment of our sixth PSM now live in South Midlands mail centre, colleagues there are really embracing the new way of working. Plant manager, Mel Peirson, said: ‘I am so incredibly proud of all involved at South Midlands - the volunteer frontline colleagues and coaches, who have taken to operating the machine like ducks to water, the managers and our trade unions for quickly understanding the machine, its capabilities and for working together to deploy to time, and not forgetting our engineers, all of whom have embraced the implementation of the machine and the changes this has meant to them.

‘We are now on our way to having processed five million items through the machine since we went live, which is a huge milestone. The South Midlands team and I look forward to topping the PSM league table very shortly.’

Workplace coach and PSM operator on the weekend shift, Nina Dhami is really impressed with how the new automation has improved her work life. She said: ‘It’s great to do a job that involves no heavy lifting, no heaving pushing/pulling and no awkward bending – it’s very easy on the body.’

We currently have five further operational machines in Swindon, Greenford, Home Counties North, Chelmsford and Warrington, with plans to install a further four this financial year in Jubilee, Gatwick, Birmingham and Leeds.