On Tuesday 6th April 2010 Royal Mail's new prices will come into effect.

Essentially, this year the price changes will not affect the majority of SOLO's customers who use Postage Paid Indicias (PPIs) on their envelopes.

The 1st Class Letter price will increase to 41p for stamps
The 1st Class Large Letter price will increase to 66p for stamps
The 1st Class Packet price will increase to 139p for stamps

The 2nd Class Letter price will increase to 32p for stamps
The 2nd Class Large Letter price will increase to 51p for stamps
The 2nd Class Packet price will increase to 117p for stamps

Meter/ PPI mail will remain unchanged for these services.

SOLO can help you to meet the Royal Mail's specifications for their Mailsort range of discount postal services. SOLO offers data cleaning services, colour envelope addressing services and environmentally friendly materials to make sure your mail qualifies for the Susatianble Mail alternatives which can reduce your postage spend.

Mailsort customerswho are able to meet these environmental specifications will benefit from prices which are 1.05% to 4.7% lower than the equivalend standard Mailsort product; ask your SOLO Account Manager how you can qualify.

SOLO knows that it makes good business sense for their clients to use an envelope address printer which is why they have been offering this service since 2001. SOLO says they can save time and money by automating the manual process of sticking labels onto envelope which is as expensive as it is time consuming. SOLO have used a black and white envelope printer for the last nine years, ensuring that every envelope they print is machine readable and the address positioned according to Royal Mail Specifications. This is crucial when accessing Royal Mail postal discount programmes.

Today SOLO has announced the acquisition of a new, energy efficient, state of the art colour envelope printer from Risograph which they believe will transform envelope addressing for their clients. SOLO knows that when sending mailings to clients and prospects, companies want to achieve the best possible impact and the highest response.

Together with their data cleansing services which remove duplicates, gone-aways and the deceased, SOLO's new colour inkjet envelope printer delivers a high impact, low cost alternative to address labelling or black & white envelope addressing which they believe improves overall response rates.

In addition to a simple name and address and Postage Paid Impression, SOLO's clients will be able to print individual, personalised sales and marketing messages on the front of each envelope. The new envelope printer will be ideal for those clients who want to introduce a last minute "offer" on the front of their mailing and they firmly believe that the use of colour in this way will imprive open rates. "If the envelope is professionally and accurately printed and is pleasing to the eye then it is bound to stand more chance of being opened than a blank envelope which is poorly addresses or sent in duplicate" commnented Stephen Priest, SOLO;s Sales Director "We think that our printer will turn a blank envelope into a powerful business tool. The proof is somewhat in the pudding" he said "I sent out a prospecting letter last month to a number of new contacts.... I will be measuring the response I received to that mailing against a similar letter I am sending after Christmas using our new colour envelope printer - I'll let you know!"

SOLO's new inkjet printer provides full colour output with no heat and because of this it consumes a fraction of the energy required to run other more heat-intensive devices. The Risograph requires less than 2 amps of electrical current when printing - that's less energy than three light bulbs! What's more, unlike many printers, the RISO easily handles a huge variety of recycled papers. The ink iSOLO uses is soy based, which is more environmentally friendly than petroleum based products and is free from ozone emissions, toner particle emissions, silica dust, greenhouse gasses and other air pollutants. This was a determoning factor when SOLO was selecting its new equipment. In September SOLO staff underwent training with a team from Royal Mail and today learned that they had been awarded a prestigious award for The Royal Mail Mailing House Scheme (RMMHS).

This is a progressive and value based scheme which provides a positive return for both Mailing Houses and Royal Mail, by rewarding behaviours that drive up quality improvements in the mailing industry.

The aim of the Scheme is to encourage the adoption of standards that improve the quality of direct mail in the marketplace generally, to drive up operational efficiency and to encourage the growth of mail as a medium.

As Scheme members, staff at SOLO are required to meet certain performance criteria and must continuously show that they are improving the efficiency and effectiveness of direct mail across our industry.

SOLO fully supports the goal of developing a sustainable mailing industry, as their environmental accreditation ISO 14001 earlier this year goes to show..
Representatives from Thames Water will today join SOLO to celebrate the planting of 30 saplings at Churchend Primary School in Tilehurst. Professor David Bellamy's organisation "Tree Appeal" has supplied the trees which are paid for by SOLO and Thames Water as part of a joint effort and the companies are delighted to be able to make this contribution to a local Primary School.

The area around the school has seen a lot of development recently with the relocation of the Avenue School and the trees will help to provide screening and shade for Churchend's "quiet area".

Children and staff at Churchend will join with staff from SOLO and Thames Water to put on their wellingtons and roll up their shirt sleeves to plant trees together at the school. This special event will Include a short talk to the children to explain to them why we need trees in our environment and how local businesses both large and small can support this.

SOLO has been awarded ISO 14001 Environmental Management certification to sit alongside their ISO9001 Quality certification.

Sue Owen, the company's managing director, said: 'I believe we must adopt robust and sustainable environmental policies and procedures as our customers are increasingly requesting information and confirmation of our environmental management status during contractual negotiations.

Our achievement today is a clear demonstration of the company's commitment and a willingness to incorporate these standards within our day-to-day operations. We will, of course, continue our efforts to improve environmental processes and enhance our services to ensure that our clients receive the best advice and service without damaging the environment".

SOLO achieved ISO 14001 accreditation within a tight timeframe. Having established many internal processes in advance, the company was able to fast track and drive the necessary changes and improvements through the business in a little over twelve months.

ISO14001 covers environmental management compliance and control, including tasks such as operational controls, environmental records, correct waste management, communications, training and monitoring and measurement.

With a view to building an enlarged services company, the Directors at SOLO are delighted to announce today the acquisition of Reading based Informed Imaging and that both companies (SOLO Mailing Services and Informed Imaging) will be moving under the corporate umbrella of SOLO Managed Services UK Ltd from 1st April 2009.

Informed Imaging and SOLO Mailing Services have worked together for many years on numerous projects, and have often shared a mutual customer base, each using particular services and expertise to fulfil customer requirements.

In essence SOLO Managed Services UK Ltd will be establishing a distinct imaging division within their range of data services, fully utilising the current operations staff at Informed Imaging. From the end of March the Informed Imaging team will be based in Reading with the existing SOLO team. As part of our "Chocolate" mailing campaign SOLO was pleased to donate 5kg bars of Cadbury's Dairy Milk to new customers who placed orders as a result of the campaign. SOLO was very pleased to learn today that one of these bars was used as part of a charity raffle to raise funds for Buckinghamshire based charity Wheel Power and was won by Aylesbury Training Group student Tonderai Mashatamombe who is training to become an engineer! ATG deliver training across a wide variety of industries ranging from vocational industrial training to social care. With a 40 year history and over 90 employees they pride themselves in providing high quality training for 16 - 24 year olds.

Wheel Power is the national charity for wheelchair sport and helps these people and many others with disabilities to achieve their sporting dreams. WheelPower provides accessible facilities at the Stoke Mandeville Stadium, the "home of Wheelchair Sport" including an Athletics Arena, Sports Hall, Indoor Bowls Centre, Swimming Pool and Fitness Centre. On site accommodation in the Olympic Lodge and the Olympic Village is suitable for a wide range of disabilities and is complemented by meeting and conference facilities and catering for events of all sizes.

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