15,000 postal jobs go - and thousands more to follow

Consignia announced today it is to cut 15,000 jobs as part of a three–year £1.2 billion rescue package in which the loss–making Parcelforce Worldwide business will be scaled down.

Consignia anticipates saving £460 million from the first round of measures aimed at reversing daily losses of £1.5 million.

Today's cuts are the first stage of what is expected to be a much larger cutback in the workforce with predictions that, in total, between 30,000 and 40,000 postal jobs will disappear.

From July, Parcelforce Worldwide will concentrate solely on the growing market for next–day and two–day express deliveries while abandoning its unprofitable three–day plus deliveries.

The move will result in 6,700 Parcelforce staff being axed in the next two years from the total workforce of 11,700 people.

Consignia chairman Allan Leighton described the package as "common sense re–engineering" and said the firm was in a "perilous position".

He added: "Parcelforce Worldwide is losing £15 million per month as we have failed to reduce our costs fast enough as business has declined.

"We need to renew our operations and halt financial losses which put key services at risk.

"Both measures announced today are far reaching – but they are just the start, not the end.

"They will ensure real progress is made in the first year of a three year strategy to restore profitability, deliver positive cash flow, improve services and make the business a better place in which to work.

Consignia plans to transfer its universal parcel service to Royal Mail, which will use its existing network to provide a uniform and affordable parcel delivery to every UK address.

Five parcel delivery centres which handle Parcelforce's three day deliveries are to shut and the number of Parcelforce depots will reduce from 101 to 51.

In the next two years, 6,700 Parcelforce staff will be axed.

Consignia also plans to rationalise its air, rail and road operations to create a more efficient single network.

The programme will see four of the current 16 mail distribution centres close in the next year and a new Midlands hub built to take on work from three existing Midlands sites by the end of 2003/04.

Around 2,500 jobs will go from within Consignia itself.

Parcelforce Worldwide depots due to shut as part of the plans are:

ENGLAND

Barnstaple, Devon; Birmingham North; Blackburn; Blackpool; Bolton, Greater Manchester; Bradford North; Bridgwater, Somerset; Bury St Edmunds; Canterbury; Dartford; Basingstoke; Derby; Grimsby; Hastings; Hereford; Hull; King's Lynn; Lancaster; Leicester Central, Leicester North, Liverpool North; London East; London South West; Luton; Northampton; Norwich North; Oldham; Peterborough; Perivale, London; Portsmouth; Rotherham West; St Albans, Herts; Scarborough; Scunthorpe; Shoreham, Kent; Southend, Essex; South Tyneside; Spalding, Lincs; Swindon; Wirral; Woking, Surrey; Wolverhampton.

WALES

Pontypridd, mid Glamorgan; Wrexham, Clwyd.

SCOTLAND

Ayrshire; Dundee; Glasgow West.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Belfast North; Londonderry; Portadown.

Within Consignia, four distribution centres are to close as part of the new rationalised transport plans.

The centres are Swindon, Chelmsford, Plymouth and Cardiff.

The closures will result in 2,500 job losses as other centres around the country absorb more work.

Consignia also warned today that three more centres, which have not been named, will also eventually shut.