A significant rise in business to business mail volumes in the second quarter of 2004 was offset by a drop in financial services mailings which dented consumer mail volumes.
Business to business volumes in the April to June quarter increased by 2.2%, to 369.81 million items year on year. However with financial mail volume down by 8.5%, total consumer mail volume saw a slight decline of 1.3% over the same period in 2003 at 1.048 billion items. This resulted in an overall combined volume figure for the quarter of 1.418 billion items a fractional 0.4% decrease year on year.
On the consumer front there were some significant volume increases in the quarter, most notably with the Government increasing year on year mailing activity by 34.8%. Volume in the health sector was up 17.7% and the education and manufacturing sectors saw respective rises of 12.8% and 11.2%.
The figures show that only the AB socio-economic group saw a rise in their direct mail receipt up 8.1%. The largest decrease was in the C2 group, where volume decreased by 8.5% year on year.
Receipt by the 16-34 and 35-44 age groups declined in this quarter. All other age groups saw an increase with the largest increase in the 55-64 age group, up by +13.8%.
Total expenditure on direct mail over the quarter also fell marginally, down 1.1% year on year at £539.40m. Commenting on the figures, DMIS Managing Director, Jo Howard Brown, says: The figures simply reflect what the industry in general is telling us the financial services sector is going through a difficult period and, as the largest mailers, this impacts on the overall volume figures. Elsewhere the signs are still encouraging and a recovery in the financial sector is sure to see volume and expenditure being to rise again.
For further information contact: Jo Howard-Brown, Managing Director, DMIS Tel: 020 7494 0483, Fax: 020 7494 0455, E-mail: jo@dmis.co.uk Web site: www.dmis.co.uk
