But Royal Mail refuses any discounted festive stamps and insists USO needs changing
Full of emotional highs and a strong sense of togetherness, yesterday’s GCA conference delivered the good news that greeting card sales have increased – now topping £1.51billion – but disappointingly Royal Mail emphatically ruled out any chance of a discounted Christmas stamp scheme, and stuck firmly to the assertion that its loss-making activities can only be helped by changing the universal service obligation.
The event at Bristol’s Harbour Hotel yesterday, 19 September, saw the largest-yet turnout of association members with 185 retailers, publishers and suppliers attending, being treated to an agenda that spanned human interest, hard facts and direct home truths for the UK’s embattled delivery service.
“It was fantastic to see so many GCA members together in Bristol,” GCA CEO Amanda Fergusson told PG Buzz, “our biggest conference and AGM yet! Thank you to council member Sarah Jackson from Stormy Knight for finding us such a fabulous location and to all our inspirational speakers and sponsors who made it such a special day.”
Council member and Woodmansterne Publications’ MD Seth Woodmansterne shared the topline figures of the upcoming GCA UK Greeting Card Market Annual Report which covers card sales across the whole of 2023.
Revealing that retail sales reached £1.51bn, a 4% increase on the previous year’s £1.45bn, Seth said: “I’m pleased to say it’s clear the British public continues to be highly engaged with greeting cards. Despite economic uncertainty, inflation, the war in Ukraine and challenges with Royal Mail, the greeting card market proved resilient in 2023.”
That rise is partly down to increased prices with the average everyday card retail price now £1.86 up from £1.76 the year prior, as overall sales volumes decreased slightly, being 2% down to 799.7million single cards, excluding Christmas and Easter packs, from 814.8m, with sales accounting for 77.3% of retail values and 78.9% of retail volumes,
Christmas single cards hit 11.7% of sales with an average £1.94, a rise from £1.77, and 11.4% of retail volume, while spring seasons have the highest average price at £2.15, a rise from £2.06, making 11% of sales and 9.7% of volume.
The full GCA Market Report 2024 will be available next month, and augmenting the good news came figures shared by market research company Kantar which broadly mirror the association’s data, confirming that 91% of UK households buy cards, spending an average of £35 annually.
The day included insightful talks from Cardzone’s trading director James Taylor on the growth journey for the family business, looking at sustainability differently with James Ellis founder James Stevens, Paper Salad owner and GCA vice-president Karen Wilson on the importance of sharing knowledge, info on the upcoming relaunch of the GCA website, and plenty of cheeky honesty as council member Mark Callaby recounted the story of co-founding Ohh Deer with partner Jamie Mitchell and how you can do anything but not everything – all of these will be covered more fully on PG Buzz over the next couple of weeks.
GCA president Darren Cave, UK Greetings commercial director, explained the association’s work to protect and promote the industry, saying: “Greeting cards enjoy a high category engagement with 94% of us continuing to send cards but, on average, only 50% of cards are posted.
“We all know that without a stable, reliable and affordable postal service, our industry and card sales will suffer. Over the last 12 months a considerable amount of effort and focus – lead by council member and Cardology director David Falkner – has gone into protecting our postal service.”
Following Ofcom’s consultation on The Future Of The Universal Postal Service released in April, the GCA, and individual members, gave detailed responses to the proposals to weaken the USO by cuts to letter deliveries and giving Royal Mail freedom to raise stamp prices.
Having urged everyone to continue to raise awareness of the issues, Darren’s speech led directly to a big draw for the day, Royal Mail’s appearance where head of public affairs Fiona Hamilton stood in for the expected speaker David Gold, director of external affairs and policy.
Using David’s notes, Fiona discussed Royal Mail’s financial challenges, noting losses of £419million in 2022-2023 and £348m in 2023-2024, and highlighted the progress on the modernisation agenda, including the business recovery and transformation agreement with the Communication Workers’ Union following the damaging 2022-23 industrial action.
Emphasising Royal Mail’s insistence on the importance of USO reform, she cited a decline in letter volumes and the need for parcel growth, and explained the proposed changes to second-class delivery aiming to balance cost and service – Ofcom has suggested accepting the cutting of Saturday deliveries and possibly moving to an every-other-day model, while first class mail would still have a six-day delivery.
She said: “One of the plans is that on the days where second class isn’t being delivered on your street, we would move first class on to the van network, and the van network is then delivering parcels and first-class letters.
“I appreciate that you won’t understand, but that actually allows us to take out the cost associated with the postman or woman going up the street every day while continuing to deliver that service, so protecting the revenue as much as taking the cost out, because it’s a balance between revenue and cost. From our perspective, our proposal is about protecting, not dismantling, but protecting it longer term.”
Fiona then took audience questions on concerns about pricing, reliability, how increased stamp costs threaten the financial viability of the post office network, and the impact on the greeting card industry, in true media professional style without really answering the points raised, although these and other queries will be asked in a follow-up meeting Royal Mail.
The only straight answer came to PG’s Jakki Brown who raised the much-vaunted idea of discounted Christmas stamps as happens in Australia.
“It’s not something that we’re going to do,” Fiona said, “Putting aside how we would actually administer it, for us what’s really key is that we maintain the one price goes anywhere to every address across the country, and a stamp is the same price for everybody, every day of the year, whether they go into the corner shop or the post office or the supermarket. So, I’m afraid, that’s not something we’ll be looking at.”
A fuller account of Fiona’s presentation, along with those from Cardzone, James Ellis, Karen Wilson, and Mark Callaby, will be covered on PG Buzz over the next couple of weeks.
