PayPoint and Royal Mail owner, International Distribution Services (IDS), have unveiled the next stage in their partnership through a strategic investment in Collect+.
Throught the £43.9m investment, IDS will hold a 49% ownership, valuing the Collect+ business at £90m.
Of the 14,000 Collect+ locations in the UK, around 8,000 offer Royal Mail collect, send and return parcel services. As part of the next stage in this partnership, an initial 500 of these sites have been upgraded to deliver Royal Mail over the counter services, enabling customers to buy postage in store from today, meanwhile Royal Mail Shop branding will be rolled out from October.
Over the next 12 months, the intention is to expand the rollout of Royal Mail over the counter services through the network, including the launch of self-service kiosks during Q1 of 2026.
According to PayPoint, the establishing of this partnership is “important to the next stage of growth for Collect+ and its positioning as the leading OOH store network in the UK”.
Collect+ will continue to work closely with the carrier partners with whom it has well-established relationships to support the increasing consumer adoption of OOH services across the UK.
The detailed financial impact of the transaction will be included in PayPoint’s interim results, due to be announced on 20 November 2025. In the meantime, PayPoint says that “current trading remans in line with expectations ahead of the business moving into the important peak trading period”.
Chief executive of PayPoint, Nick Wiles, said: “We are delighted that Royal Mail has invested into the Collect+ business, which has seen strong growth over the past five years as we have established it as the leading open OOH store network in the UK. The addition of Royal Mail over the counter services and Royal Mail Shop branding is an exciting development for our retailer network and is another example of how we deliver vital community services across the UK, including local banking, parcels and broader access to cash services. We are also pleased today to be announcing a proposed special dividend and share consolidation, which combined with our ordinary dividend and continuing in year share buyback, will result in over £90 million of returns to shareholders in the current financial year.”
Interim chief executive of Royal Mail, Alistair Cochrane, added: “The launch of the Royal Mail Shop brand creates a new and improved high street destination for all of our customers’ parcel needs in one location. With postage available to buy in store, and opening hours including evening and weekends, the shops are giving customers greater flexibility in how they collect, send and return their parcels.
“This investment is one of the ways we’re making Royal Mail more convenient. We have the UK’s largest network of out-of-home parcel points — from lockers to solar-powered postboxes — and we’re focused on being the nearest and simplest choice for our customers.”
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