Royal Mail

This article is about the UK postal service and courier company. For its prior history before 1970, see General Post Office. For the UK retail post office company from 1970, see Post Office Limited. For its holding company, previously known as "Royal Mail plc", see International Distribution Services. For the stage play, see Royal Mail (play).

Royal Mail Group Limited
Royal Mail
Native name
Welsh: Post Brenhinol[a]
Formerly
  • Consignia PLC (2001–2002)
  • Royal Mail Group PLC (2002–2007)
Company typeSubsidiary
Industry
Founded1516 (1516) (Master of Posts)
31 July 1635 (1635-07-31) (public service)
29 December 1660 (1660-12-29) (Post Office Act 1660)
FounderHenry VIII
HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
Area served
United Kingdom
Key people
Services
ParentInternational Distribution Services
Subsidiaries
  • eCourier
  • StoreFeeder
  • Intersoft Systems & Programming
Websiteroyalmail.com

The Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels). The company used the name Consignia for a brief period in the early 2000s but changed it afterwards.[2]

The company provides mail collection and delivery services throughout the UK. Letters and parcels are deposited in post or parcel boxes, or are collected in bulk from businesses and transported to Royal Mail sorting offices. Royal Mail owns and maintains the UK's distinctive and iconic red pillar boxes, first introduced in 1852 (12 years after the first postage stamp, Penny Black), and other post boxes, many of which bear the royal cypher of the reigning monarch at the date of manufacture.[3] Deliveries are made at least once every day except Sundays and bank holidays at uniform charges for all UK destinations. Royal Mail generally aims to make first class deliveries the next business day throughout the nation.[4]

For most of its history, the Royal Mail was a public service, operating as a government department or public corporation. Following the Postal Services Act 2011,[5][6] a majority of the shares in Royal Mail Limited, now known as International Distribution Services, were floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2013.[7]

  1. ^ "Royal Mail van carrying the welsh name of Post Brenhinol parked in a street in Wales". Alamy. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
  2. ^ Miller, Robert. "Royal Mail makeover hints at break-up". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
  3. ^ "Royal Mail Post Boxes: A Joint Policy Statement by Royal Mail and Historic England". Historic England. p. 4.
  4. ^ "1st Class mail". Royal Mail. 2013. Archived from the original on 25 December 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
  5. ^ "Royal Mail privatisation bill unveiled by Vince Cable". BBC News Online. British Broadcasting Corporation. 13 October 2010. Archived from the original on 16 February 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
  6. ^ "Postal Services Bill 2010–11". Parliament UK. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
  7. ^ "Royal Mail Rise 'As Expected', Say Ministers". Sky News. 25 November 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2014.


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