An Post chief signals redundancies and office closures

An Post chief executive David McRedmond has said the company will meet its €10 million-a-week wage bill in April for its 9,600 employees.

But the company chief said the firm needs “two-year runway” financial certainty to implement a redundancy, branch rationalisation and business restructuring programme.

Mr McRedmond said an increase in the price of a stamp was central to cash flow over the two-year period, as the price of postage had been kept “artificially low” in the past.

He said international comparisons showed An Post was one of the few national postal companies which still offered letter deliveries to every town and village and every address, every day.

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The increase would mean the price of a stamp on a closed letter rising from 72 cent to €1.

Referring to the restructuring of An Post, Mr McRedmond said there were two core businesses: the post office network and the parcel post service. He also noted a number of subsidiary companies, notably providing financial services.

Closures

In relation to the post office network he declined to specify the number of expected closures, but said it was his ambition to ensure that every village of more than 200 people had access to a post office.

He said many communities had as many as five post offices to chose from in a radius of 15km and the future would involve “consolidation” of post offices and “co-locating” offices within supermarkets where a higher volume of business would be transacted.

But in relation to rural post offices he said “there will certainly be a significant number of closures”.

The parcel service was a “very important area” in An Post’s future plans and it and the subsidiary businesses would be developed over coming years. He said An Post would begin offering current accounts in direct competition to banks in coming weeks with a publicity drive and formal launch later in the year.

Speaking on Today with Seán O’Rourke on RTÉ radio Mr McDermott said the decline in letter post was between 5 and 10 per cent each year, but in the most recent year An Post had performed well and kept the decline to 5 per cent.

This and “managing our cash” meant the wages could continue to be paid, but the price increase on the stamp was essential, he said. “We simply have to set the right price,” he added.