Royal Mail delivered 130m parcels over Christmas

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But letters are still on the decline, Royal Mail said, which recently cut 3,000 jobs as part of a restructuring project

Royal Mail delivered 130m parcels in December, up 6pc on last year, largely thanks to Britain's growing obsession with online shopping.
Its postmen and women handled 4pc more parcels in the past nine months, buoyed by contracts with popular online retail giants like Asos and high street stores John Lewis and House of Fraser.

The company, which went private in 2013, said its delivery business in this period "fully met" expectations. Royal Mail shares were up 3.5pc in morning trading.

Royal Mail's letter deliveries continued to decline, falling 3pc by volume and 2pc by revenue over the same period. But the former monopoly's European parcel business, GLS, performed well with sales up 10pc on strong volume growth.

The update comes as Royal Mail, which marked its 500th birthday this month, is undergoing a major modernisation programme to trim costs.

Royal Mail shed 3,000 jobs in the six months to September 27 and confirmed further cuts could be on their way.

But most of these staff left through voluntary redundancy, pushing up costs in the short term.

Royal Mail delivered 130m parcels in December, up 6pc on last year, largely thanks to Britain's growing obsession with online shopping.
Its postmen and women handled 4pc more parcels in the past nine months, buoyed by contracts with popular online retail giants like Asos and high street stores John Lewis and House of Fraser.

The company, which went private in 2013, said its delivery business in this period "fully met" expectations. Royal Mail shares were up 3.5pc in morning trading.

Royal Mail's letter deliveries continued to decline, falling 3pc by volume and 2pc by revenue over the same period. But the former monopoly's European parcel business, GLS, performed well with sales up 10pc on strong volume growth.

The update comes as Royal Mail, which marked its 500th birthday this month, is undergoing a major modernisation programme to trim costs.

Royal Mail shed 3,000 jobs in the six months to September 27 and confirmed further cuts could be on their way.

But most of these staff left through voluntary redundancy, pushing up coss in the short term.

She said: "Extensive planning, which began in the spring, ensured we had the capacity to accommodate additional volumes from our retail customers and other delivery operators."

Analysts at Goldman Sachs predicted demand for parcels will deliver 2pc revenue growth for Royal Mail in 2017, adding that "the trough might already be behind us".

The biggest risk posing the delivery giant is a "failure to cut costs" or if demand for parcels slows down, their analysts said.