All four of the group's businesses – Letters, the Post Office, Parcelforce Worldwide and European parcels business GLS – improved their financial performance.

The improved financial result triggered a £418 ‘share in success’ payment to workers, amounting to a payout of nearly £2m to employees across Northern Ireland.

The company said it had delivered record quality service to customers in the last year with the vast majority of letters exceeding their targets.

But the market is now open to full competition with rival organi-sations in the last 12 months handling more than one billion letters under access arrangements, a number set to hit three billion – or one in seven letters – in two years’ time, if not sooner.

Senior officials are also concerned that competitiveness is being threatened by the cost of servicing the pension fund deficit of £6.6bn, which has proved to be a major drain on the group’s financial performance.

With that in mind the group has recently agreed a five-year investment and modernisation programme with the Government designed to strengthen the group’s finances, improve competitiveness and reward the workforce.

The group is also talking to the regulator, Postcomm, about the need to review the regulatory framework.

Management is concerned that the basis on which the price control was set is not working under current market conditions.

In December last year the Government announced proposals on the future of the Post Office network which continues to run at a loss of £2m a week.

The proposals try to balance the important social and economic role of Post Office branches with the need for some restructuring to put this arm of the group on a more stable financial footing. It is not known yet how many branches might be affected in Northern Ireland.

The task now, according to senior management, is to drive through the ongoing transformation process at pace.

The company’s vision remains to be the best and most trusted mail company in the world and senior managers are confident they can reach that goal in partnership with the workforce.

Profile

General manager: Michael Kennedy

Employment: 4,309

Turnover: 39.05bn (UK)

Profit: £355m (UK)

Royal Mail House, 20 Donegall Quay Belfast BT1 1AA Tel: 028 9089 2052 Fax: 028 9089 2336