Fit for the future

We are at a crucial juncture. But not one without opportunity. If we can adapt our business quickly enough, we will be well positioned to meet our customers’ demands for more and more items, to and from more people, delivered more frequently.

If we don’t, the market will move away from us and we will be consigned to delivering a reducing volume of letters and struggling to meet demand in the growing parcels market.

Our people, our trusted brand, and our role in society all provide grounds for optimism and should provide strong foundations for a successful future. But we need to move quickly, the window of opportunity is open to us now. In the past we were accustomed to moving at a snail’s pace and believed that the market would come to us. But change in the market is there for us to capture and if we don’t rise to that challenge, others will.

Our three-step plan

When we released our financial results in June, CEO Stuart Simpson and interim executive chair, Royal Mail Group, Keith Williams, set out the below three-step plan.

• First, the immediate step-change in ways of working needed to accelerate the pace of change.
• Second, the co-operative step-change needed in how we, our people and the trade unions work together to accelerate rather than slow down change.
• Third, the regulatory step-change needed to ensure that our regulatory obligations allow us to meet our customers’ changing demands and deliver what they want in a financially sustainable way.

So, what have we done since June?

To drive a cultural change, and improve accountability and responsibility, we took the difficult decision to reduce our management population.

This change is about making us a leaner, more commercially focused organisation. But that does not detract from the fact that many hard working, highly valued colleagues are leaving our business. We are committed to conducting the consultation process carefully and sensitively, working closely with our people and their representatives.

We have also taken action to improve our financial position. We aim to keep our non-people costs in 2021-22 in line with the level of last year. And we have already identified £250m of planned spend on assets that can be saved over the next two years.

In addition, we have identified projects that are no longer necessary, projects that can be delayed, and efficiencies across a number of projects that means we can still deliver what we need, but for a lower cost.