Royal Mail reports £1bn loss after postal workers’ strikes

Parent company IDS posts loss of 748m as it blames industrial action and failure to increase productivity

Royal Mail has reported a 1bn loss, with bosses blaming strike action by workers and a failure to increase productivity for its poor performance during a year in which it cut 10,000 jobs.

The poor performance led International Distributions Services (IDS), which owns Royal Mail, to report an overall loss of 748m for the year to 26 March. That compares with a profit of 577m a year earlier.