Royal Mail Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
Royal Mail

Type	Public limited company
Traded as	LSE: RMG
Industry	Postal services, courier
Founded	1516; 508 years ago (1516)
Headquarters	100 Victoria Embankment, London, EC4Y 0HQ, London , United Kingdom
Area served	United Kingdom / Worldwide
Key people	Les Owen (Chairman) Rico Back (Group Chief Executive Officer)
Services	Letter post, parcel service, EMS, delivery, freight forwarding, third-party logistics
Revenue	£10,172 million (2018)
Operating income	£66 million (2018)
Net income	£258 million (2018)
Number of employees	162,000 (2019)
Divisions	Royal Mail Parcelforce Worldwide
Subsidiaries	General Logistics Systems

The Royal Mail (Welsh: Post Brenhinol; Scottish Gaelic: a' Phuist Rìoghail) is a postal service and courier company in the United Kingdom, originally established in 1516. The company's subsidiary, Royal Mail Group Limited, operates the brands Royal Mail (letters) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels). General Logistics Systems, an international logistics company, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Mail Group. For a brief period in the early 2000s, the group used the name Consignia before reverting to its original name.

The company provides mail collection and delivery services throughout the UK. Letters are deposited in a post box, taken to a post office, or collected in bulk from businesses. Royal Mail owns and maintains the UK's distinctive red pillar boxes, first introduced in 1852, many of which bear the initials of the reigning monarch. Deliveries are made at least once every day except Sundays and bank holidays at uniform charges for all UK destinations. Royal Mail generally aims to make first class deliveries the next business day throughout the nation.

For most of its history, the Royal Mail was a public service, operating as a government department or public corporation. However, following the Postal Services Act 2011, a majority of the shares in Royal Mail were floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2013. The UK government initially retained a 30% stake in Royal Mail, but sold its remaining shares in 2015, ending 499 years of public ownership. It is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

Images for kids

The Louth-London Royal Mail, by Charles Cooper Henderson, 1820
Edinburgh and London Royal Mail, by Jacques-Laurent Agasse
Lower Edmonton Royal Mail sorting office, in London
Royal Mail Post Office Regulations handbill giving details of the Uniform Penny Post, dated 7 January 1840
Historic vehicle fleet
London's largest sorting office, Mount Pleasant
A Royal Mail van, seen in Wymondham in 2021
Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre, where mail entering and leaving the United Kingdom is sorted
Automated post sorting machine
Royal Mail postman with bicycle in Ilminster
North West Midlands Mail Centre
Southampton Mail Centre
A British Rail Class 73 with a parcels van and carriages under British Rail carrying the mail in 1986 through Clapham Junction.
Royal Mail Ford Transit van, outside the Axminster post office
Royal Mail vehicle logo as used in Scotland. (Featuring the Crown of Scotland)
A British Rail Class 325 mail train

Royal Mail facts for kids

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