Royal Mail Stamps

This new name was aimed at ending the confusion that had existed between the terms The Post Office (the whole organization) and Post Offices (the customer accessible counters). Another reason was to have a unique name for the international market. This new name was unpopular with employees, the unions and the general public; and Consignia plc became Royal Mail Group plc in 2002, and then Royal Mail Group Limited in 2007.

Unlike other former state monopolies such as The Stationery Office, British Gas and British Telecom, Royal Mail was not privatized in the 1980s and 1990s, but remains a limited company wholly owned by the UK government.

A wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Mail is Post Office Limited, which operates the national network of post offices. As the activities of Royal Mail have been reduced, so the network of post offices has contracted.

Royal Mail remains responsible for the universal mail collection and delivery service in the UK. Letters are deposited in a pillar or wall box, taken to a post office, or collected in bulk from businesses. Deliveries are made at least once every day (except Sundays and Bank Holidays) at uniform charges for all destinations within the UK.

Royal Mail introduced telegraph services in 1870 and telephone services in 1912. It took over nearly all of the UK's municipal telephone companies (the sole exception being Kingston Communications in Hull) and was responsible for the resultant telephone network until British Telecommunications was demerged by the British Telecommunications Act 1981. BT was later privatized.

The National Giro Bank was introduced in 1968, and sold to Alliance & Leicester in 1990.

Historically, many government benefits and state retirement pensions were paid in cash through the post office network. However, in recent years, an increasing proportion of benefit and pension payments have been made directly by bank transfer, leading to a loss of revenue for Post Office branches and many closures.

According to its annual report for the year ended 26 March 2006, Royal Mail delivers 84 million items every working day and has a network of 14,376 post offices. Revenue for the year was £9.056 billion, and profits before tax were £312 million. Since this time, profits have dropped year on year £233 million in 2006/7 falling to a £10 million/annum trading deficit in 2007. In 2008, the BBC reported that Royal Mail's trading position had worsened dramatically to an annual loss of £279 million/year in financial 2007. As this met government targets, the CEO's remuneration increased to a record high.

- Mrs. Nagalakshmi Tadakaluri, Philatelist.

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