Here’s the rub

JD Seasonings was founded by husband and wife team Jamie and Lorraine Davison in 2015.

After starting in the couple’s kitchen, the online meal kit company quickly expanded to large premises in Wigan and has continued to grow.

Its hand-blended recipe rubs are now shipped across the UK and abroad as far as Hong Kong and Australia. They send around 250 packages a day, but this can increase to 1,200 at peak times.

‘We used Royal Mail from the start,’ said Jamie. ‘It’s a good quality service, they’ve been going a long time, it’s a trusted brand, they deliver fast – and it’s a good price as well.’

The pair send all their items First Class, and are currently in the process of upgrading to fully Tracked services. The business offers a same-day dispatch service if customers order by 2pm and has three to four daily collections from its premises.

‘It’s a better service for our customers and it’s more professional,’ he added. ‘We’re a quality brand so we want to give a quality service.

‘We’re reliant on Royal Mail, without a doubt. It’s really important for our business that Royal Mail turn up. We’d have to use a different service or courier if they weren’t available.

‘We’re happy and don't want to look elsewhere. We’re upgrading to the Tracked service, which shows we have confidence in Royal Mail.’

Trust is a huge part of the customer relationship

Jon Nicholson, sales director, Royal Mail parcels, said: ‘Our customers really like Royal Mail, they believe in what we do and they’re confident when they book their deliveries with us.

‘If customers start to worry we won’t deliver, quite simply they’ll switch that traffic to one of our competitors. What we see out in the market is our competitors mobilising to sign customers into one or two-year contracts.

‘Any traffic we do lose isn’t for the short term, it’s potentially for one or two years.’