The Plant Friends Journal 004
Hey plant friends,
Hey plant friends,
I can’t believe we’re back to Monday already, time flies when you’re lugging trays of seedlings in and out of the polytunnel and hoping the slugs don’t find them first! This week has been incredible weather-wise for me, and I hope it’s been the same for you!
This past week has been all about starting more seed trays — I'm in full-on seedling mode now. Some of you have messaged asking what I’m sowing: it’s a mix of perennials, pollinator-friendly annuals, and a few experimental trays for fun. I’ll probably share a behind-the-scenes reel soon. There’s something really satisfying about this stage — little green shoots, rows of hopeful life… until the cats knock one over or my toddler decides the compost looks fun to dig in. Real life!
Market season also continues. This weekend saw me back at Castle Mall in Antrim (rant about the decline of UK town centres coming soon) and Portballintrae Village Hall. The sun finally showed up, which made a real difference! People that aren’t plant obsessed like ourselves never really set out to buy plants — they’re just a passing pickup — and plants always seem to fly off the tables faster when the weather cooperates. There’s something contagious about a sunny day and fresh plants. Thank you if you stopped by and said hello — it’s honestly one of my favourite parts of this job, chatting with fellow plant lovers in real life. I swear I always learn something new every market.
Now, onto something a bit different: Royal Mail.
BBC released an article today (linked below), but it’s something I’ve been pondering about for a while, so here are my thoughts. Royal Mail — the 500-year-old service that still delivers most of our orders — is about to be taken over by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. He’s got a fascinating background: started as a lawyer, made his money in energy, owns a chunk of Sainsbury’s and West Ham United, and now he’s set his sights on Royal Mail.
It feels like a weird match — a billionaire with plush homes in Paris and London, known for sipping Chinese green tea out of his own teabags at Claridge’s, buying an institution most of us associate with posties in hi-vis and soggy letters. After government review and promises to protect UK jobs and operations, the deal’s been approved.
You’ve got to ask: why would someone like Kretinsky want Royal Mail, a struggling, loss-making organisation with an ageing infrastructure (and workforce)? Let’s be honest, this isn’t a passion project. This is a long-term strategic move — and it’s probably not for the benefit of small businesses like mine or the average household sending a birthday card.
Government ministers and Royal Mail bosses are quick to point out that there are “legally binding” guarantees to protect things like the UK HQ and tax residency. We’ve all seen how flexible those promises can become once the headlines move on. Once it’s fully out of public hands, who’s really going to stop creeping changes?
If you’ve been shipping parcels lately, you’ll know the pain of rising costs. Let’s be honest — compared to rises elsewhere in the economy it actually hasn’t been too bad. An extra 6p per parcel is tolerable on a small scale. The pain only comes into play when you’re shipping thousands of orders per week.
Here’s where it gets interesting — and feel free to laugh and call me conspiratorial — it’s nothing yet compared to what American small businesses face. Over there, private couriers like FedEx and UPS have turned surcharges into an artform: rural delivery fees, extended area charges, fuel surcharges, extra handling costs for anything not in a perfect little rectangle. Want to send something slightly awkward or to somewhere outside a major city? Get ready to pay. A lot.
It’s efficient, sure. However, it’s also built entirely around profit, not public service (nothing wrong with that, but this is Royal Mail we’re talking about, was it ever supposed to turn a major profit?). For small businesses, it’s suffocating. You either pass the cost onto customers or absorb it.
When someone like Kretinsky swoops in to buy Royal Mail, you have to wonder — is this the model he’s got in mind? Turning Royal Mail into a lean, surcharge-driven machine that prioritises profit over accessibility? This hasn’t happened yet in the UK. That said, it’s already the reality in the US. If he’s looking at that playbook, we should all be paying attention.
Right now, Royal Mail still has obligations to deliver to every address in the UK, six days a week, at a universal price. Those obligations aren’t set in stone forever. With a bit of lobbying, a few quiet regulatory tweaks, and the slow erosion of public accountability, that could all change — gradually and quietly.
I really hope I’m wrong. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if, a year or two from now, Royal Mail starts looking a lot more like FedEx — and not in a good way.
For now, everything’s business as usual. If you’ve placed an order recently: thank you, and your plant is (probably) on its way via Royal Mail as we speak.
Finally, if you’re enjoying the newsletter — forward it to a planty pal. We’ve had a great start (open rate is still climbing!) and I’d love to keep growing this little community, just like the plants.
See you next Monday