Share the joy of card sending and protect our postal service

The thousands of people who work in the creative UK greeting card industry know that card sending matters.

The simple act of sending and exchanging cards promotes wellbeing and mental health, lighting up the life of recipients and senders alike.

And what’s more card sending nurtures local independent businesses on the high streets we all love, supports local charities and organisations in the communities we care for and helps protect the Royal Mail delivery service we all treasure.

That’s why the Greeting Card Association (GCA) launched our #Cardmitment campaign in 2023, reminding everyone about the joy and importance of sending cards.

The GCA works to protect and promote the greeting card industry, supporting and helping members to grow their businesses. Our vision is for everyone to feel connected by the sending and receiving of cards.

Through our #Cardmitment campaign we work with members and our PR agency to share and promote the importance and joy of greeting cards.

Being able to put a smile on someone’s face though a card also relies on a Royal Mail service that delivers on time, all the time, right across the UK – and at a great price. And that service is under threat so we are currently working hard to promote and protect the industry’s interests during this national debate.

This blog details some of the GCA’s recent activity to protect and promote our industry.

May 2024

Greeting Card Association asks government to make six-point ‘Cardmitment’ pledge to protect postal services

As you know the GCA is campaigning to promote card sending and prevent our thriving, vibrant, creative industry being undermined by changes to the Royal Mail service we all rely on.

Our #Cardmitment campaign is making sure your voice is heard and the joy and importance of cards remembered, see latest 2024 Media Coverage here. We’re now in a crucial period as politicians and other stakeholders consider the future for Royal Mail.

We are asking Members’ to write again to their MPs highlighting the issues at this key time, see draft letter and more information below:

The GCA press office has had a really busy month, with many enquiries both on the Ofcom review and the news on a bid for Royal Mail’s parent company IDS.

Greeting cards, and quotes from GCA’s CEO Amanda Fergusson, have featured in all national newspapers (see above link) . The GCA will continue to wave the flag for our industry, keeping the importance of the postal service to small businesses and our industry in the news as this story unfolds.

We continue to look for your help at this important moment. Your voice can make a real difference:

Over the course of the next few weeks we’ll be asking MPs to renew their own card commitment to the Royal Mail service that businesses like ours rely on, and British people love.

Our ask, through our #Cardmitment campaign, is that MPs and decision makers make a new pledge to ensure Royal Mail and its owners:

Fix it First, then reform – insist existing performance targets are met before agreeing to any USO changes.
Keep Saturdays affordable – Protect the Saturday delivery service at an affordable price and make that price legally binding.
Fully Price Protect all deliveries – Protect consumers from above-inflation price rises on 2nd class stamps, extend that protection to the first class service, and make any future price rises conditional on agreed service targets being met.
Keep Royal Mail national – Protect an affordable single price delivery service to all UK households.
Stop delivery discrimination – Prevent the prioritisation of parcel deliveries over letters and cards.
Support high streets – Recognise the role a thriving postal service – including post offices – have in protecting high streets and communities up and down the country.

As you know, Ofcom’s own data indicates greeting cards are critical to how Royal Mail is perceived by end consumers. Cards are the most frequent things UK consumers post and 42 per cent of customers now say sending cards is the only time they use Royal Mail.

Please join our #Cardmitment campaign by asking your own local MP to sign up to these simple pledges. Please download below the draft letter and send it to your MP. To find your local MP click here

David Falkner has already spoken to his local MP

Ofcom Review 24th January 2024

Regulator Ofcom and politicians responsible for the Royal Mail are considering cutting back the Royal Mail’s service obligations and raising stamp prices yet again.

On 24th January Ofcom issued a review document calling for the postal service to be modernised due to the decline in letter volumes over the last decade.

Royal Mail have legislative requirements set under the Universal Service Obligation (USO) to provide a universal postal service, including delivery and collection of letters, six days per week, Monday to Saturday. Ofcom’s findings show that consumers prioritise reliability over speed and frequency, therefore their two recommendations to change the USO are:

Change the frequency, reducing the number of delivery days to 3 or 5
Change the speed, so Letters take up to three days or longer

Ofcom has justified these options by stating that the USO does not meet modern consumer needs and therefore is driving price increases.

Ofcom are asking individuals and businesses who rely on the Royal Mail Letter service, and do not agree with the options put forward, to respond to Ofcom’s call for input by 3rd April via this link The Future of the Universal Postal Service .

Before that Ofcom are holding Stakeholder events around the country, in Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast and London Register your interest in attending – Stakeholder events on the future of the universal postal service (eventogy.com)

Greeting Card Industry Response

The GCA are in regular contact with Royal Mail and Ofcom. GCA CEO Amanda Fergusson has written to Dame Melanie Dawes, CEO of Ofcom, expressing the industry’s concerns about the proposals and requesting a further meeting ahead of the GCA’s official response to the consultation.

GCA Council Members will also be attending Ofcom’s stakeholder consultations around the country, and urge members to do the same.

As a committee, we couldn’t reconcile the relatively recent drop in service delivery and significant Royal Mail losses with the narrative that this all stemmed from the long-term structural decline in letters volumes.

Instinctively, we believed that reducing service levels and putting up stamp prices further would just trap Royal Mail in a doom spiral, and also wasn’t fair on the British public. It appears much of the country felt similarly.

Having now seen Ofcom’s supporting analysis, it appears this doesn’t take sufficient allowance for the impacts of last year’s service disruption on parcel, as well as letter volumes. Including this adds further critical context to current consumer confidence (as well as Royal Mail’s present financial position) and leads to vastly different conclusions, which re-open opportunities to regain a thriving postal service, rather than just managing for decline.
David Falkner, lead of the GCA Royal Mail sub-committee and MD of Cardology

Consumer and Government reaction to proposed reduction in service

There has been significant interest from the media, government and consumers to Ofcom’s review of the postal service, highlighted in PG Buzz’s Ofcom Under More Pressure Due to Royal Mail Reforms

In advance of Ofcom’s announcement, before the full details of the review were known, the government confirmed that they “would not countenance” the loss of the Saturday delivery, with Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson saying:

“The PM’s strong view is that Saturday deliveries provide flexibility and convenience. They are important for businesses and particularly publishers. The Prime Minister would not countenance seeing Saturday deliveries scrapped“.

Ofcom’s review is generating a lot of public interest in the media, with GCA Members’ Heidi Early from Earlybird, Wendy Jones Blackett and David Falkner from Cardology joining GCA CEO Amanda Fergusson in a series of media interviews. See links to the media coverage in our Members’ Library

Consumer groups, unions and others who rely on the Royal Mail Letters service have all been joining in to highlight the importance of Royal Mail’s Letters service. With consumers also having a say through letters in the press, and campaign group 38Degrees ‘Don’t let Royal Mail slash delivery services‘ petition which generated over 59,000 signatures in a few days.

*Wendy Jones Blackett, speaking to Radio 5 LIve*

GCA Members across the country have been standing up and speaking for the industry – highlighting the importance of a reliable, affordable and regular postal service for the greeting card industry and sharing the joy of cards. See PGBuzz for more details.