Royal Mail set to cut 2,000 management jobs

Royal Mail is to cut 2,000 management jobs, about a fifth of its managers, as it struggles to deal with the effects of the coronavirus crisis.

The postal service was already facing challenges before the pandemic.

The company said the coronavirus outbreak had accelerated the trends of more parcels and fewer letters being sent.

Royal Mail said it had not adapted quickly enough to that change in the market.

The job cuts will mainly fall on so-called «back-office» roles, including finance, commercial and IT.

Royal Mail currently has about 9,700 managers, and the job losses will hit the most senior roles hardest, with half of them set to go.

Frontline postal staff are unlikely to be affected because Royal Mail needs to preserve «quality of service», a spokesman said.

The business has faced challenges for a number of years, and former chief executive Rico Back made a surprise exit from the business in May.

Royal Mail said that the planned job cuts, which it wants to make by March 2021, would save £130m on «people costs».

It did not pay a dividend to shareholders in 2020, and said in a statement to investors on Thursday that it would not pay a dividend in 2021 either.

In the year to March 2020 it made a profit before tax of £180m, down from £241m the year before.