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There are about 3,000 population, roofed cottages, two pubs, a church of the twelfth century and a small post office in Srivenham village in Oxfordshire. Jackie Adaway was standing last week, talking to Sara and Matthew Thorn, the one who continued it.
“If I need a card they will tell me what greetings are and they are friendly and helpful,” Adaway said, who is apparently disabled and is 10 minutes away. “This is a social place. If I am at home and feel lonely I will come here and chat” “Along with the postal service and greeting cards he uses the branch to deposit and withdraw cash and withdraw.
Srivenham is a prosperous, rich village, golf club, horseman stables and the UK Defense Academy, which trains military officers around the world in the surrounding areas. However, its Lloyds Bank branch closed a few years ago and the post office is an important commercial center for many residents.
Another villageman Rich Page operates a Pokémon card trading business from his house and uses the branch to send cards through registered posts. A local co-up-facing shop has an EVRI parcel sending and drop-off service but he prefer the post office. “Some cards are extremely valuable and when I come here Sara and Matthew I know they are safe” “
The way Thornes has been going since the 21st, the Srovenham Post Office has no question that the community is worth it. Whether it’s a good business is another matter. Post Office tries to move forward from such as Horizon And make its 1.5 branches more profitable for sub-postmasters, those who run them under the franchise, depicting the problem of Srivenham.
Thornes received $ 104,500 from the post office from the post office in the last financial year. After renting, wages for four part -time workers and other expenditures, they themselves were able to draw £ 37,000 for the year. Also, they have made $ 22,200 by selling cards and gifts like tea towels and toys in their tightly packed retail places.
To manage the post office branch, the earnings of 000 37,000 are kept in the top rank of sub-postmasters, but it is less than the annual legal minimum wage between the two. “They’re doing better than most because 52 percent of postmaster does not make any money,” Eliot Jacobs, a non-departed director of a post office that is running a discipline of stationary stores and post offices.
The bay between the value of the post office community and their economic value is more widely widening with the Royal Mail, which was privatized in the 21st and Earned for £ 5.3bn Last year, the Czech billionaire expanded to Daniel Katensk. Post offices handle less letters and have competition for the supply of parcel: Srivenham has a logistic hub of Amazon.
For example, the thorns earn an average of about $ 1.50 for each special delivery parcel, which brings a customer to the branch, paying for the post and leaving the leaves there. If the customer buys a call online from Royal Mail instead of the Royal Mail, prints a label and throws it at the post office, they get 25 pens.
“It takes a long time to serve some customers because they want to chat. They were beautiful people and I didn’t have it in any other way, but at the end I earned 25P,” Sara Thorne said, who previously worked as property lawyer with Linkletter. The fork is expected to be transferred to the former bank building in the surrounding bank, which is larger, larger, to provide larger retail and banking services.
The Post Office paid the sub-postmaster of £ 416 million last year and the next year, the amount is $ 120 million and more than $ 250 million by 2030 and wants to increase banking and other earnings to increase $ 250 million. It is universally owned and the government will soon issue a green paper in its future: the Post Office wants a long -term certificate for giving a greater management autonomy.
However, tensions between personal services and financial reasoning remain. Jacobs’s UOO Chain, which is supported by the private equity firm Next Wave Partners, has nine branches in London and its surroundings. He would like to achieve more post offices. “This is a great business in the main part but you must work hard and your scale needs the economy,” he said.
In their branches, the thorns will soon require remuneration growth. “We haven’t taken leave in three years, partial because we cannot afford,” said ThrillThe The government, the post office and the villagers of Srivenham agreed that their work is worth it. It is more difficult to pay.
