Royal Mail second-class delivery cuts will take ‘many months’ to roll out

Firm returns to profit a year after parent IDS agreed to acquisition by Daniel Ketinsky's EP Group

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Royal Mail has said its moves to slash second-class deliveries will take many months" to roll out, as it reported its first annual profit for three years in its maiden results since its 3.6bn takeover by the Czech billionaire Daniel Ketinsky.

Its parent group, International Distribution Services (IDS), is transforming the postal service after the sector regulator, Ofcom, gave permission in July to end second-class post on Saturdays and reduce the service to alternating weekdays from Monday to Friday.