Channel Islands Co-op has announced the closure of post offices based in its Jersey stores, due to a fall in long-term demand.
The Beaumont, Georgetown, and Pontac will close on 27 October 2023, with the Don Street post office closing after the Christmas period on 31 December.
In a statement on its website, the retail society said: “Unfortunately, the current cost of operating the counters is unsustainable and the funding we’ve received from Jersey Post won’t cover the rising costs of operating the counters. In addition to this, a decline in business and postal volumes has further exacerbated the financial losses, leading to a significant shortfall.
“We fully recognise the importance of these services to certain members of the community and want to acknowledge the commitment made by Jersey Post to address the funding for the remaining post office counters following ongoing discussions.”
The co-op added that there would be no redundancies for its staff, because it has already been struggling to staff the sites.
CEO Mark Cox added: “As a society, we take immense pride in supporting our communities and have always recognised the vital role post offices play within local areas. We have discussed various options with Jersey Post, and, regrettably, we have concluded that the only option is to close these four post offices within our CI Coop stores.
“The running costs to operate these offices combined with the decline in business and postal volumes, the removal of our own foreign currency services and recruitment challenges have made it unsustainable to continue.
“We hope that everyone involved with and affected by these closures can appreciate the challenging position we’ve found ourselves in, as we’re effectively subsidising the provision of a service to the community on behalf of another commercial business. Given the significant headwinds currently faced by the co-op, we can’t continue to justify the level of losses being incurred.”
Julie Thomas, Jersey Post managing director, said: “We are acutely aware of the important role our post office network plays in the local community, and we’re disappointed that we are unable to continue running four post offices within the CI Coop stores.
“We want to thank The Channel Islands Cooperative for running these post offices from their premises over such a long period of time. Through close working with CI Coop, these branches have been selected due to their close proximity to alternative post offices where customers can still access their usual range of services.”
