Whistl has confirmed that it will be ending its final mile delivery service, which it suspended last month.
Whistl, previously known as TNT Post, said in May that it had made the “difficult decision” to suspend the service in London, Manchester and Liverpool, after potential investment partner LDC, a branch of Lloyds Banking Group, decided against funding the company’s expansion plans.
The company had been increasing coverage, expanding its service in Liverpool last year, as it sought to create an end-to-end service to rival Royal Mail.
In an update on its website the postal company said: “The PostNL [parent company] and Whistl management team have undertaken a thorough strategic review of the E2E (letter delivery to consumers homes) operation and have concluded, unfortunately, that there is no viable alternative solution that will ensure a sustainable future for the current service and therefore it will not continue.”
The statement said that since roll-out of an E2E (final mile) service in 2012 regulatory issues had delayed expansion to new geographic areas, frustrating plans to achieve Whistl’s original business plan and deliver a long term sustainable service.
“Whistl is in ongoing consultation with the affected employees in E2E through their union and employee representatives to minimise the impact of this difficult decision. Whistl is proud of the opportunities we created for many young and long term unemployed people in our E2E service and hope that the skills and experience they have gained will enable them to find re employment very quickly.
“We are a profitable company achieving year on year growth for the past ten years. We continue to be the second largest postal operator in the UK with 55% of the Downstream Access (DSA) market. To put this development into context E2E handled 3 million items a week whilst the DSA business collects and sorts over 80 million items a week. In addition, we also have a long established door drop media division and are growing in packets and parcels and logistics,” the statement continued.
Whistl added that it was “an entrepreneurial company” and “proud that we created the first competitive letter delivery service in the history of the UK postal market”.
Parent company PostNL has estimated the cost of ending the service at as much as €30m (£22m), which it plans to recognise as a one-off cost.
It is thought as many as 1,800 jobs could be at risk as a consequence of the cessation of the final mile service.
