The chief executive of Royal Mail has left after just over a year, weeks after the delivery company’s owner was sold for £3.6bn to a Czech billionaire.
Emma Gilthorpe, who joined from Heathrow airport in May 2024, left the company on Thursday, and will be replaced on an interim basis by the chief operating officer, Alistair Cochrane, with immediate effect, the Guardian has learned.
Daniel Křetínský completed a deal to buy International Distribution Services (IDS), the owner of the 509-year-old Royal Mail, in April.
A group of existing IDS non-executive directors, including the chair, Keith Williams, resigned earlier this month. However, the company had made no mention of Gilthorpe’s future after the deal.
She had been the chief operating officer at Heathrow airport since 2020, and joined Royal Mail in a newly created role under Martin Seidenberg, who is chief executive of IDS. Gilthorpe had also held positions in the telecoms industry, with BT and Cable & Wireless.
She said: “I will always be incredibly proud to have led Royal Mail … I look forward to seeing Royal Mail continue to transform in the years ahead, ensuring a stronger and more sustainable future for this great British company.”
Cochrane joined Royal Mail in 2023 from the delivery company Whistl, where he was chief executive. He has also held senior roles at TNT Express and Parcelforce Worldwide.
He becomes Royal Mail’s fourth boss in three years. Seidenberg, who had responsibility for the division before Gilthorpe was installed, replaced Simon Thompson, who stepped down in 2023 after only two years following an acrimonious tussle with unions.
Thompson had become the latest in a line of executives to clash with unions as they attempted to overhaul the company after its privatisation in 2013.
Seidenberg said: “Emma has worked tirelessly to drive forward Royal Mail’s transformation, and I would like to extend my personal thanks to her for the significant contribution she has made to the company.”
He added: “Alistair Cochrane is an exceptional leader and brings significant experience to his new role from across the logistics industry, and from his time with us at both Royal Mail and Parcelforce.”
In May, the industry regulator, Ofcom, launched an investigation into Royal Mail’s quality of service after almost a quarter of first-class post last year arrived late. The target is for 93% of first-class items to arrive within one working day.
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Consumers and businesses have lamented the standard of service, complaining about delivery delays and higher stamp prices. In April, the price of a first-class stamp rose by 5p, or 3%, to £1.70 – the sixth increase in little more than three years.
Ofcom has been examining whether to relax rules on Royal Mail’s service, and has proposed allowing it to only deliver second-class letters on alternate weekdays and not on Saturdays, with first-class post remaining six days a week.
Křetínský’s EP Group clinched the IDS deal after a long-running UK government review of the national security considerations approved the deal.
The Conservative former trade policy minister Greg Hands was this month appointed as a strategic adviser to EP Group.