National postal operator Royal Mail has announced it will open an additional 125 delivery offices on top of the 100 open 7 days a week already, in the run up to Christmas this year.

225 of the busiest delivery offices nationwide will now be open seven days a week to meet customer demand. An additional 1200 delivery offices nationwide will also have extended opening hours from Monday to Saturday. A large number of them will be open until 1700 on Christmas Eve as well, going against the tradition of Royal Mail winding down over that day ahead of the two day Christmas lull.

Sue Whalley, Chief Operations Officer of Royal Mail said of the new plans, “Opening some of our busiest delivery offices on Sundays all year round has been a great success. In these offices, Sundays is one of the most popular days for parcel collection by our customers. We are delighted to open even more offices to help everyone in the weeks leading up to Christmas Day.”

With competition in the delivery market hotting up, the extended service should benefit customers eager to get their presents ahead of Christmas. Other delivery businesses have significantly improved their service in the run up to Christmas in response to customer demand and the move by Royal Mail should be a signal to its rivals to work on new ways of reaching the customer. Whether this could lead to attempts by rivals to have operations on Christmas Day is something yet to be seen.