Post office in the Market is moving to Tourist Information

The post office opened at the supermarket three years’ ago after moving from its former headquarters in Smith Street.

Guernsey Post CEO Boley Smillie said there were various reasons for the move.

‘We’ve had a long relationship with the Coop in terms of running post offices,’ he said.

‘We’ve just not been able to agree terms for the continuation of the Market Street post office.’

Branches at Coop stores in St Sampson’s and St Martin’s will remain open, albeit with reduced hours, from 9am-3pm Monday to Friday and 9am-12pm on Saturdays from 15 April.

‘The new location is quite a good one for us,’ said Mr Smillie.

‘There’s parking close by, it’s more central and we’ll be expanding the size of the counter we have there.’

Mr Smillie said Guernsey Post staff from Envoy House would be redeployed to Town to join colleagues who are already working there.

He said that by the time the new branch opened there should be an alternative site for the EBOX parcel collection service, as well as for PO boxes.

‘There will be no disruption to the service.’

He thanked the Coop for running the post office in Market Street for the last three years.

‘We will of course continue to work closely with them in the running of the post offices at St Sampson’s and St Martin’s,’ he said.

The counter used at Market Street will be moved to a new spot next to the Tourist Information desk at the North Plantation site but this will take a few days and until it is installed customers will be served from the existing Batif office in the building.

CI Coop CEO Mark Cox said that the company had always recognised the vital role that post offices play in local areas and it had discussed various options with Guernsey Post before coming to the joint decision to close the Market Street branch.

The company had offered alternative roles to the staff who manned the post office and avoided any job losses.