Bulk mailers hope to flourish after UK air link is secured
Some of the island’s lesser-known bulk mailers have praised Guernsey Post for securing a continued air link to the UK.
While much has been made of the impact the loss of an airmail connection would have on card manufacturers Moonpig and Funky Pigeon, a number of smaller companies have revealed that the link is also vital to their survival.
The current aircraft arrangement with the Royal Mail will cease on Friday 4 April. The new service organised by Guernsey Post, which will only take outgoing mail, starts on the 7 April.
Paul Domaille, managing director of Classic Flowers, said that all three postal flower companies in the island relied on the air service.
‘Basically it’s a life-saver. With perishable products you have to guarantee to get them there quickly,’ he said. ‘The main part of our business is sending to the UK and with this service we can guarantee next day [delivery] 90% of the time.’
The company is one of the largest flower delivery businesses in the UK which grows the majority of its own flowers, with three acres of glass at its nursery, and has just invested in a new website with the intention to grow the business.
‘We currently send a couple of thousand boxes a year but we want to grow,’ said Mr Domaille.
‘Without that plane we would have lost all that investment we have just put in. Guernsey Post has done a great job to keep this going. It is a great service, collect by 4pm, on the plane by 6pm, and straight into the UK system.’
Rob Plampton, a director at Printed Guernsey, echoed this sentiment. The company prints cards on behalf of other businesses including greetings card companies Scribbler, TouchNote, and Papier and a similar business in Lookalikey, which uses AI face swap technology to create images for cards and gifts.
‘We work very closely with Guernsey Post – their business is our business – so we are really happy with this new arrangement,’ he said. ‘We send out more than two million personalised cards a year and we have to have access to first-class post.
‘If this hadn’t gone ahead we would have had a big hole in our budget and would have had to reduce staff. Now we are confident we can encourage print on demand customers to come to us and we can continue to grow.’
