{"id":302821,"date":"2026-02-17T17:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T17:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302821\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T17:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T17:08:08","slug":"small-businesses-set-to-be-hit-with-huge-an-post-price-hikes-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302821\/","title":{"rendered":"Small businesses set to be hit with huge An Post price hikes \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have long championed small Irish businesses on this page and have frequently highlighted the importance and the benefits of shopping locally, so we were alarmed when alerted to a dramatic increase in delivery charges imposed by An Post<\/a>. <\/p>\n

We were told that some small businesses selling arts and crafts online could even go out of business as a result of an increase in the cost of sending some parcels by more than 130 per cent from the beginning of next month.<\/p>\n

As you many be aware, last month An Post announced a range of price increases<\/a> that came into effect at the start of February. <\/p>\n

Those changes have seen the cost of a national stamp climbing by 20c to \u20ac1.85, while a new \u20ac3.50 stamp for letters to anywhere in Europe, including Britain, has been introduced \u2013 which represents an increase of 85c.<\/p>\n

As part of its pricing move, An Post also announced an increase in the cost of self-adhesive labels, which are aimed at business customers. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Days appear to be numbered for daily delivery of lettersOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

These had been priced at \u20ac149 for 25 labels, which could be affixed to parcels weighing up to 10kg, but following the price increase a packet of 25 labels is priced at \u20ac174 \u2013 with An Post reducing the maximum associated parcel weight from 10kg to 5kg. <\/p>\n

Online retailers who use the labels to send goods to their customers pointed out that when the higher prices and the lower weight limits were combined, it amounted to an increase of 135 per cent for businesses shipping between 5kg and 10kg.<\/p>\n

Tara Prendergast of the Biscuit Factory business collective for creatives retailing online contacted Pricewatch to say the hike had \u201ctipped from uncomfortable into unsustainable\u201d for the small enterprises that she deals with. \u201cFor product\u2011based creative businesses selling in the \u20ac20\u2013\u20ac60 range, an extra \u20ac2\u2013\u20ac4 per parcel isn\u2019t background noise, it wipes out already thin margins and forces people to choose between raising prices (and losing customers) or absorbing costs they can\u2019t afford,\u201d she told The Irish Times. <\/p>\n

She said many creative enterprises \u201creally want to keep their shipping Irish, but the numbers are pushing them towards foreign\u2011owned couriers and online brokers\u201d.<\/p>\n

She added that the price hike and the pressure it placed on small businesses was \u201cespecially painful for those relying on their local post office as their only realistic shipping access point. The message is \u2018shop local, support Irish\u2019, but the shipping bill is effectively punishing the smallest traders for doing exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to queries, a spokeswoman for An Post said it was \u201cwell aware that some of the price increases are very steep in certain categories\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish Times view on the price of a stamp: care needed to avoid killing off the letterOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She said the Advantage Card parcel prices had not increased in six years, adding that if An Post \u201ccould retain these prices we would. But it\u2019s simply not sustainable, and increases are necessary in order to continue providing services across the country. Sometimes there is a belief abroad that An Post is somehow immune from the labour, transport, energy and insurance costs that impact other businesses. But this is not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that the majority of parcels are under 5kg, but \u201cheavier ones, of which there are more and more each year, require additional manual handling, sorting and transport, and sometimes it takes two people to shift them, incurring higher processing and delivery costs. The current rates mean we are incurring losses on these services, and this is not sustainable.<\/p>\n

An Post initially planned to impose the new limit on February 3rd, but that has been deferred, with the spokeswoman saying it will continue to sell 10kg labels until early March and will honour all such labels for as long as customers continue to present them on items. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith volumes increasing steadily, we will continue to review costs and pricing to apply SME discounts wherever possible. But we cannot operate at a loss,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We have long championed small Irish businesses on this page and have frequently highlighted the importance and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[18991,72,943,61,60,9825],"class_list":["post-302821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-an-post","tag-business","tag-cost-of-living","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-pricewatch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}