The announcement of five days of postal strikes in the runup to Christmas is unwelcome news for business owners. Christmas is always a busy time of year for entrepreneurs, when many send more post more than usual.
Postal workers plan to strike over pensions, jobs and branch closures, although the Post Office has stated disruption will be minimised and that it will be “business as usual”. It says that although close to 300 crown post offices will be affected, 97% of branches will not. However, as the strike falls at the busiest time of the year for businesses, many are concerned consumers will be put off and deliveries and drop-offs will be affected.
Many online retailers aim to make the majority of their annual sales during December. Among them is Jo Watkins, founder and owner of Bonhomiegames.uk, which sells board and card games online. “Frankly, it’s a terrible thing for an online business which makes 60% of its yearly takings in the Christmas period,” says Watkins. “I hope people will shop early to ensure they can purchase what they need on time, but I expect it will harm sales. I expected the forthcoming weekend to be a busy one, but now people may not shop online, despite the Post Office’s assurances that it’s business as usual.”
Watkins says her company, based in South Wales, already offers personal drop-offs for local sales and is “promoting like mad” this week to generate sales, but thinks the big issue is consumer confidence.
Helen Lewis, director of Literally Public Relations, which promotes books and authors in the publishing industry, says Christmas is always “ridiculously busy” for the publishing industry, with a big spike in book sales. The Kent-based business usually spends much of December posting books for review. “We always expect delays at this time of the year anyway, but we predict the strike will exacerbate these. If a reviewer or critic needs a book urgently, we will have to courier it and incur the cost to avoid missing out,” she says.
In the meantime, Lewis will attempt to mitigate the effect on her company by acting earlier and ensuring as many people as possible know the strike is planned. “[We will] keep communicating with our authors via email and social media, follow the news to see if the strike gets cancelled, get the books sent out this week and not send any out next week, except via courier.”
The end of the year is a busy time for accountants, too, given that the tax return deadline of 31 January is not far away. Sam Boothroyd, founder of accountancy firm Rymer Associates, is anticipating a glut of paperwork awaiting him when he returns from his Christmas break. “This could have a big impact on us and on our clients, with the tax return deadline fast approaching,” he says. “If clients are delayed in getting their paperwork to us, this could cause a huge backlog of work in January.”
Boothroyd has been in touch with clients via email or by phone and, like many businesses, is tackling the problem as well as he can. “We have a system where clients can upload their paperwork to our website, but some still prefer to send it in. We’ve sent emails and phoned everyone to remind them about the strike and tried to prompt them to get everything to us as early as possible, but really there is not much else we can do without incurring a huge expense.”
Indeed, business owners are simply not going to accept being unable to trade because of a strike. In the digital age, there are so many ways of communicating that many will happily forego the “snail mail”.
Catherine Shuttleworth, CEO at retail marketing agency Savvy, says her business already seeks alternatives and the strike will only encourage her to avoid the Post Office. “In a market where we rely less and less on the Post Office to deliver post and more and more on couriers and delivery firms to do this work – and more efficiently – this industrial action makes me even more likely to look elsewhere for my delivery needs,” she says.
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