The New Year got off to a brisk start for Arla Foods' business mail and parcels service.
About 200,000 items per week, compared with 30,000 before Christmas, were delivered to homes in the first half of January. Timed to go out straight after the holiday, they included such items as brochures for Saga Holidays and Which magazine.
According to Richard Monk, who leads the parcels operations team, the company's success in handling these volumes will provide the basis for growing the business as further opportunities come along.
Express gained a long-term licence from Postcomm, the postal services regulator, last April, with the result that the company can now deliver up to 46 million postal items each year.
One of the highlights so far was last June when franchisees delivered 500,000 voucher booklets and 350,000 Nestlé coffee samples to doorstep customers. However, unlike the post-Christmas rush, these unaddressed items were delivered to existing doorstep customers.
The removal of the Royal Mail monopoly for bulk deliveries is providing Arla Foods with the chance to widen the scope of the environmentally friendly milk float fleet.