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Post Office™ Articles

Post Office® Facts

Overview

Our history dates back to 1635, when Charles I opened up his private mail service to the general public. For the next 350 years, the General Post Office (from 1969 The Post Office Corporation) was a national institution, holding the monopoly in communication services.

General Facts

• Post Office Ltd serves 24.4m customers a week
• 95% of the UK adult population visit in a year.
• www.postoffice.co.uk received 14m unique users last year
• Post Office is the UK's leading independent provider of travel insurance
• Post Office is the largest provider of foreign currency in the UK

Our Customers

Post Office Ltd serves 24.4 million customers a week who make 37 million visits and approximately 63million transactions.

Our Values

The Post Office® is a vital part of many communities and provides essential services to millions of people in every corner of the country. As an institution, we’ve earned the trust of the British people and through decades of behind the counter service, we have become woven into the fabric of many lives.

Looking forward, our ambition is to remain central to the lives of our customers by being the UK’s most trusted provider of essential services. This will help our commitment to become a successful commercial organisation whilst retaining our social purpose and placing us actively on the side of our customers.

The Post Office business values were developed following extensive colleague and customer research. These describe Post Office Ltd products and services at their best now and point to where they all need to be in the future:

• Fairer -transparent, on your side, for everyone
• Easier-straightforward, helping hand, accessible
• Better-responsible, right for you, good value

This difference is fundamental and straightforward: where most businesses are driven mainly by profit, the Post Office® is a business with a social purpose and exists to serve the people at a fair profit. In doing so, we are actively on the side of the people.

Advertising Campaign

• October 2007 saw the launch of a new advertising campaign, which introduced fictional subpostmaster Ken and his team Jill, Ted and Amir. The campaign was created to help remind people why they love the Post Office whilst promoting the range of products and services that are now available. The campaign had an immediate impact, topping the advertising awareness charts in Marketing Week.
• In May 2008, 60% of people were aware of any Post Office advertising. 30% of people were aware of Post Office advertising in newspapers and magazines, 10% were aware of adverts online and 30% in branches.
• We have seen an 8% increase in the campaign reminding people that the Post office is ‘a much loved institution’.
• Since the new campaign began there has been an 11% increase in associating the Post Office as a financial services provider.
• Our Broadband ad was also voted top of the charts in the inaugural ‘listeners favourite’ poll on Virgin Radio