The UK’s Post Office is now the biggest Sunday opening retailer in terms of shops open across the country. 3,800 branches of the operation are now open seven days a week.

The Post Office has released a statement that said that the extended opening hours were part of the “biggest modernisation programme in UK retail history”. This improved service is coming due to customer research which showed that more people would be likely to use the Crown owned company should it have better opening hours. The statement continued, “almost a third of people (31%) are more likely to use their Post Office branch if it is open on Sundays, with this figure rising to 38% for those aged between 35 and 44″.

Kevin Gilliland, Post Office Network and Sales Director, said of the seven day a week operation, “I’m delighted that millions of people across the UK can now access Post Office services seven days a week. We are building a secure financial footing to maintain our services at the heart of communities for the future.

“Our modernisation plan is all about getting better for customers and making sure that branches across the country offer opening hours to meet their customers’ needs, with Sunday opening increasing rapidly across our network.”

The Post Office has more than 11,500 branches across the UK, and the number of outlets open on Sunday has been growing steadily.  In December 2013, the Post Office hit its first milestone of having 1,000 branches open on Sunday. Two years later, there were 3,300 Sunday-opening branches.