After strong results, the Royal Mail has promised a £400m to shareholders.
The group saw a pandemic boom and adjusted operating profits surged to £404m for the six months ended in September. Royal Mail has forecast full-year profits of £500m.
“The pandemic has resulted in a structural shift and accelerated the trends we have been seeing,” said chief executive, Simon Thompson.
“Domestic parcel volumes, excluding international, are up around a third since the pandemic, whilst addressed letter volumes, excluding elections, are down around a fifth.”
“This reaffirms that our strategy to rebalance our offering more towards parcels is the right one, and demonstrates the need to start defining what a sustainable Universal Service is for the future.
“I want to thank our teams for what we have delivered so far: it is an impressive start but there is still much more to do together,” he added.