Greetings card retailers fret over proposed Royal Mail service change

David Falkner may sell pop-up cards of Star Wars stormtrooper helmets and Harry Potter’s Hogwarts but he’s intent on ensuring his industry is taken seriously. “We punch well above our weight,” he said of the £1.5bn greetings card industry.

- Alex Lawson

Falkner, co-founder of Cardology, and a cluster of fellow card retailers gathered in London this week to voice their concerns over proposals to cut Britain’s postal service.

In January, the regulator Ofcom set out a series of options for the future of the service , namely creating a slower, more reliable service or cutting the number of days on which Royal Mail delivers letters, from six days a week to five or even three. A costly nextday service would be retained.

The consultation is expected to lead to reform of the Universal Service Obligation (USO), the company’s mandate to deliver six days a week to every UK address at a fixed price .

Royal Mail argues that the fall in letter volumes over the past 20 years makes that model unsustainable. As part of the process, Ofcom is hosting a series of events for interested parties – from small businesses to direct mail companies – to look at the impact.