Thousands of convenience stores will be branded Royal Mail Shop, after the delivery company’s new owner acquired a stake in the parcel network Collect+, in the first big deal since it was taken over by a Czech billionaire.
The Royal Mail owner, International Distribution Services (IDS), which was taken over by Daniel Křetínský’s EP Group in April in a £3.6bn deal, said it had bought a 49% stake in Collect+ for £43.9m, which offers access to almost 8,000 pickup points – newsagents, convenience stores, supermarkets and petrol stations.
