Alex Osborne

Reimagining the Post Office

[Getty Images] 
issue 03 October 2020

How do you keep a near 400-year-old organisation relevant today? How do you maintain and develop services that serve the broadest possible range of people across the entire country? These are the constant challenges facing the UK’s Post Office.

Of course, these challenges are similar to those of other public institutions, but as a government-owned commercial business with a social purpose, the Post Office also faces additional complexity.

The Post Office operates the UK’s largest retail network with more than 11,500 branches – 99.7 per cent of the population live within three miles of a Post Office and 97 per cent of branches are run on a franchise or agency model by retail partners. The Post Office aims to reset its relationship with postmasters who run the network of independent branches and support them so their businesses can thrive, but it is under pressure to become more self-sufficient.

The need for transformation could not be clearer.

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