Grocery giant shows interest in acquiring 108 Crown Post Office outlets
Tesco could be getting even more involved with the greeting card industry as the supermarket giant which now owns the Paperchase brand has expressed an interest in acquiring the 108 Crown Post Offices.
The POs’ future is under review as the government-owned company explores shifting to a franchise model for the outlets for sending cards, letters, and parcels as well as banking hubs.
It’s understood that Sky News has learned that Post Office chairman Nigel Railton told a group of over 20 MPs earlier this week that Britain’s largest retailer had informed it of a potential interest in taking over the sites of the loss-making business, which currently requires an annual subsidy from the Treasury.
An MP who attended the talks on the future of the directly-managed branches said Mr Railton had given the impression in his remarks that Tesco was one of a small number of interested parties which could take over the entire 108-strong network of directly-managed POs.
Alongside the significant greeting card and stationery offer in its near 5,000-strong store estate across the UK and Ireland, Tesco revived the Paperchase brand after buying it but none of the stores when the card retailer finally collapsed two years ago.
With postal industry watchdog Ofcom’s own research showing 42% of people now only use the mail to send greeting cards, taking over the Post Offices where many buy Royal Mail stamps to do just that will tie the supermarket even closer to the greetings industry.
While Tesco has told Sky it will not respond to enquiries, a Post Office spokesperson said: “We are fully committed to engaging openly and transparently with MPs regarding any potential plans related to our directly-managed branch network.
“Since inviting expressions of interest for 108 Post Offices that we currently operate, we have received interest from retail partners and independent postmasters in the hundreds.
“We remain committed to engaging with our trade unions over the potential future ownership of our directly managed branches, which are loss-making for us, into March before updating our colleagues who work in these branches on any potential next steps.”
Almost 1,000 are employed by the Crown Post Offices, with the majority of jobs expected to be safeguarded if a single retailer takes over, although trade union officials have expressed concerns over Mr Railton’s plans.
The fate of the Crown Post Offices was called into question in the autumn as part of a wider strategic review initiated by Mr Railton – which includes plans to bolster sub-postmasters’ pay substantially – after he took over as the 360-year-old company’s interim chair on a 12-month deal in May 2024 as compensation payouts were underway to postmasters affected by the Horizon IT scandal.
