New £1.8m parcel machine installed as Guernsey Post gears up for Christmas

The company has spent £1.8m. on the OptiSorter which was installed by Bowe Systec UK.

Chief executive Boley Smillie said the company had intended to get the machine in 2026 or the following year, but the pandemic had changed its plans.

‘We saw a significant increase in parcel volume beyond that which we were seeing anyway, which was already fairly exceptional,’ he said.

From about 8% annual growth, from 2020 that leapt up to between 20-30% a year for the next two years.

At the same time, the reverse was true of traditional letter volumes, which declined by the same amount.

It took a team of 50 specialist engineers and suppliers three months to install the 50m-long sorter.

This could happen only after the company had increased its operational space at Envoy House in Le Vrangue by about 50% to accommodate the huge machine, which included building a small extension and reorganising its floor space.

The sorter can handle all mail formats up to 20kg and carries out in-line weighing, volume scanning, and barcode and optical character recognition which can read handwritten addresses.

Mr Smillie paid tribute to staff, not just those directly involved in the project, but also those who had to work at the company’s secondary site in Bulwer Avenue while the installation took place.

That site has now closed and all staff are back at headquarters.

In the tradition of its letter-sorting machines, the parcel sorter has been given a nickname – Bougie, after long-serving staff member John Bougourd, who retired earlier this year.

With the busy Christmas period looming, getting the parcel sorter up and running could not be more timely.

‘Coming up to our busiest period, we could be handling in excess of 30,000 parcels a day,’ said Mr Smillie. A normal day sees between 10,000 and 20,000 packages handled.

No staff have been made redundant as a result of the new hardware, but Mr Smillie said there had been some voluntary redundancies agreed earlier in the year which was connected to a wider reorganisation of the business.

Use of the machinery will allow delivery staff to spend more time out and about, and less time sorting at the depot.

‘Our partnership with Guernsey Post is a prime example of what can be achieved through shared dedication and innovation,’ said Bowe Systec UK managing director Craig Bowers.

‘We are proud to support Guernsey Post’s mission to enhance their mail processing capabilities.’