Paragon Customer Communications has been handed an early Christmas present by picking up the fulfilment contract to work with Royal Mail to deliver Covid-19 home test kits, seven days a week for the Department of Health & Social Care.
Royal Mail said late last month that it had secured the contract, dubbed “Operation Moonshot”, but Paragon’s role has only just been announced.
Under the scheme, members of the public can now go onto the NHS website, order a test kit, and have it delivered to their home address via next-day delivery; some 215,000 kits will be delivered each day in an initial one-year contract worth £550m.
The contract will run alongside Royal Mail Group’s existing agreement to deliver test kits to and collect them from care homes, regional test centres and priority postboxes, a role it has carried out since April 2020.
The partnership will see a total of six Paragon Group sites act as hubs to ensure the rapid delivery of test kits, with sites strategically located in Sunderland, Dagenham, Bristol, Belfast, Glasgow and Birmingham to provide an agile supply chain.
Paragon chief operating officer for transactional and service divisions Dave Reynolds said: “This is not only a great achievement and fantastic news for our business, but a strong example of cross-business and cross-team collaboration. We are extremely proud to play such an important role in supporting the Government’s battle against the coronavirus pandemic.”
The move coincides with Royal Mail urging customers to “shop early and send early” for Christmas amid reports that the postal operator has seen a 34% increase in demand for online deliveries year-on-year.
It warned customers: “Please post items and gifts for Christmas early, particularly for International deliveries. Ongoing Covid restrictions, reduced air and freight capacity, high volumes and winter weather conditions are all impacting transportation and local delivery across the globe.”
The company has already started to recruit 33,000 seasonal workers this festive period, amounting to two thirds more than its usual Christmas temporary staff uptake.
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