UniversalMail has entered the UK postage stamp scene with some stunning stamp designs and is the first of Royal Mail's competitors to make stamps available to the public in general.
UniversalMail UK Ltd was established in 2006 following deregulation of the UK postal industry. While most of Royal Mail's competitors have concentrated on the high-volume mass-mail and business market, leaving Royal Mail to do the final sorting and delivery, UniversalMail UK has an access agreement with Royal Mail which enables any postcard or envelope(*) bearing a UniversalMail UK postage stamp to be posted to any detination outside the UK through the extensive network of Royal Mail post boxes, located throughout the country. All UniversalMail UK postage stamps are also accepted over the counter at Royal Mail Post Office branches. UniversalMail UK’s clients include tourist operators, regional tourist offices (information centres), hotels, general retailers and souvenir shops.
The first stamps were
self-adhesive, produced in October 2008 by Joh. Enschede Security Print,
The Netherlands by offset litho with one phosphor band*.
*See the foot of the page
for details of conditions and printing details.
We will be very interested to hear from anybody who has received a letter or postcard from the United Kingdom which uses one of these new stamps. In particular we would like to see any Royal Mail or UniversalMail postal markings and to post images of such items on this page. Please e-mail with details and pictures of use of UniversalMail UK stamps.
All stamp designs here are
the copyright of UniversalMail United Kingdom Ltd and are used with
their permission © 2008/9.
The numbering system is copyright Norvic Philatelics © 2009