Business

Royal Mail owner buys £43.9M stake in parcel shop business

AnyFans 2025-10-01

By Editor,This Is

Nearly 8,000 Collect+ stores will be rebranded to Royal Mail shops under a £43.9million deal struck by the postal service’s owner. International Distribution Services, which was itself controversially acquired by energy tycoon Daniel Kretinsky earlier this year, said on Tuesday it had bought a 49 per cent stake in Collect+.

The deal will see new high street shops open for collecting, sending and returning parcels. They will sell Royal Mail postage for the first time, and have extended hours including evenings and weekends.

Collect+ currently has a network of around 14,000 out-of-home locations in the UK, of which almost 8,000 already offer Royal Mail collect, send and return parcel services. The new deal will deal another 500 sites launched, with a total of almost 8,000 being rolled out from October.

‘Over the next 12 months, the intention is to expand the rollout of Royal Mail over the counter services through the network, including the launch of self-service kiosks during Q1 2026,’ IDS and Collect+ said in a joint statement. Royal Mail has increasingly focused on growing parcel volumes and ‘out of home’ delivery options.

IDS told investors earlier this month that Royal Mail now has over 2,000 lockers and 7,500 Collect+ stores, 11,500 Post Office branches, 1,200 customer service points and 1,400 parcel postboxes. Interim chief executive of Royal Mail Alistair Cochrane said: ‘This investment is one of the ways we’re making Royal Mail more convenient.

‘We have the UK’s largest network of out-of-home parcel points — from lockers to solar-powered postboxes — and we’re focused on being the nearest and simplest choice for our customers.’ Collect+’s owner PayPoint announced a special dividend payout of 50p per share to investors in response to the deal.

Its chief executive Nick Wiles said: ‘The addition of Royal Mail over the counter services and Royal Mail Shop branding is an exciting development for our retailer network and is another example of how we deliver vital community services across the UK, including local banking, parcels and broader access to cash services.