A BLAKEDOWN company has been given the stamp of approval by Royal Mail, having been chosen to provide a vehicle affinity scheme to the postal giant.

Grosvenor Hall, a national contract hire and leasing specialist, secured the deal following six months of negotiation and the arrangement covers all Royal Mail Group companies, including Parcelforce Worldwide.

The deal is one of the largest of its type in the country and will enable the lease firm to offer competitive deals to around 300,000 current and retired employees of Royal Mail from the beginning of May.

Simon Howles, managing director of Grosvenor Hall, said: "Naturally, we are delighted to have secured this relationship.

"We feel our success was partly due to the fact we can purchase large numbers of cars and commercial vehicles at very competitive prices and have access to more than 10 major bank and manufacturer-owned funders, to ensure that affinity partner employees will always have the best range of offers to choose from."

He added: "The creation of a new group structure gives us the capacity to exploit this developing affinity market and is just one of a number of benefits of recent structural changes in the businesses, which have prepared us for growth, with a stronger and more focused management team and streamlined operational processes."

Shan Lawrence, voluntary benefits manager for Royal Mail Group, said: "We are excited about working with Grosvenor Hall and growing our benefits offering to our employees as part of our lifestyle benefits programme."