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Why Us?

Mail Consolidators - What are they?

Fundamentally BTB Mailflight are able to provide such low international postage prices because we are 'mail consolidators', and are one of the biggest and most experienced mail consolidators in the UK.

We consolidate all types of mail including:

Direct mail
Letters
Business post
Magazines
Journals
Packets

Most of the mail we consolidate is produced by us on behalf of our clients, but we also consolidate mail produced by clients and their suppliers and delivered into us i.e. their mailing houses and printers.

What does a mail consolidator do?
We produce mail for hundreds of clients, all in accordance with the regulations of the destination countries, which includes printing the appropriate postal indicia and address formatting (or we receive mail from clients produced correctly in accordance with our instructions and using our licensed PPIs). We mix and sort the mail according to the requirements of the receiving postal authority and then the mail is bagged and labeled appropriately to meet the requirements of the destination country or region.

By consolidating the mail of many clients and presenting it in a "sorted" condition to the postal operators we effectively handle some of the initial work for the postal operator, leaving the postal operator with less processing to undertake and fewer resources to employ. Also we leverage the collective might of all our clients negotiate with postal operators and they offer a trade rate to us which reflects the huge volumes of mail we give them. These rates are much cheaper than the general tariff.

Postal operators are only really interested in handling very large volumes of mail so clients alone cannot usually access these services at all, let alone achieve discounts.

We also work with mail specialists e.g. those that only specialise in the distribution of periodicals, or express mail, or lightweight direct mail etc, and these operators only work with the trade.

La Poste, the French postal authority, invested in BTB Mailflight in March 2008, and although we are far from obliged to use them we do now have privileged access to their services. So where they are the most cost effective we will obviously use them. The investment of this £15 billion organisation will see us go from strength to strength and will help La Poste in their aim to develop a foothold in the UK.

We also have sophisticated data processing, mail fulfilment and sorting capabilities which clients, and their printers, simply do not have. We also have many years experience and established supplier relationships, with many agents across the world. Our global network has taken years to cultivate and we are continually developing our solution.

By working with the widest range of postal operators we have access to a range of delivery options and prices, and can offer a mixture of services for delivering direct mail, transactional mail, customer correspondence, catalogues, magazines, journals, packets and parcels etc.

Save You Money or Add Value

We provide value for money fulfilment services, with competitive and sustainable pricing from our mailing house and our order fulfilment centre.
We ensure you benefit from maximum UK postage savings through Royal Mail discounts, DownStream Access, and other alternative UK postal services.
We provide a low cost. highly reliable international postal solution with postage savings worldwide.
Trade prices for print and materials.
Data cleansing and enhancement services to maximise return on investment and reduce wastage from mailings. We can do a data health check for you for FREE!
Achieve economies of scale by utilising more of our services.
Potential to reduce internal costs as managing just one supplier takes less resources.
With over 40 years experience we are often able to provide advice that saves you money or adds value.

Save You Time

With a comprehensive core service range and many support services too, you benefit from economies of scale, and just have to deal with one supplier.
You just receive an invoice from us, and not multiple suppliers, which makes sorting out your financial's simpler and quicker.
We would provide you with a dedicated Account Manager, and their direct contact details, and we do not have voicemail. So you will not have to waste time trying to get hold of someone, your call will always be answered.

Save You Hassle

Having to find a new supplier because yours has gone out of business is a hassle you could do without, and unfortunately this has been too common recently. However we are part of Europe's second largest postal group (20 billion euros turnover) which helps ensure financial stability, as well as providing investment and expertise, and developing worldwide services.
When a mailing house makes mistakes it causes you hassle, and even worse could damage your brand and cost you money. We provide high quality and reliable services. We have many industry accreditations including DMA and ISO9001:2008 accredited and founder member of International Mail Distribution Accreditation Scheme (IMDAS) and Mail Consolidators Association (MCA).
We aim to achieve unrivalled client service, you would have a dedicated Account Manager who is their to make your life easier.
If you outgrow your existing supplier you'll need to find a new one, and if they are doing a good job for you that could be a real shame. We provide scalability and flexibility, with large modern facilities and room for expansion.

Unrivalled Client Service

We want to develop long term relationships with our clients. We don’t see ourselves as simply another supplier, we are a true partner. Our aim is to provide unrivalled client service and real value for money.

With over thirty-nine years experience we have developed a culture of continuous improvement and proactivity, and our client services procedures are compliant with the ISO9001:2008 quality standard.

Each one of our clients is assigned an Account Executive who is responsible for the day-to-day delivery of BTB Mailflight’s services, and they are a client’s main contact. Account Executives work within a small team, and each team is supported by a Team Leader.

A Business Development Manager will also be allocated to the account, they handle more strategic issues such as pricing, implementation, recommending additional services a client may benefit from, and reviewing our performance against the Service Level Agreement.

You will be given the direct telephone numbers and email addresses of your account management team, and we do not have voicemail so your call will get answered.

Having documented procedures and a team-working support structure ensures a consistent standard of service

Competitive Prices

To offer our solutions we provide a wide range of services at competitive prices. We can not promise to always be the cheapest for everything we do, but in particular our postal prices are some of the lowest around; we have saved clients £1000’s on print and materials; and our mailing fulfilment and polywrapping prices on high volume runs are very competitive.

We do also emphasise that our services are high quality, and finding the supplier that provides you with the best value for money is more important than finding the cheapest!

Where we come into our own is when a client is looking for a complete solution, this is because we can not only provide direct cost benefits in terms of economies of scale, but also we can provide internal cost savings for you as we save you time and hassle too which ultimately will save your organisation money.

Why get price quotes from BTB Mailflight?

We will get a quote/estimate to you quickly.
Our quotes/estimates are itemised and clear.
No hidden extras.
Our prices will be realistic and sustainable.
We will aim to offer advice to save you money.
We provide volume discounts.
The more work you put with us the more you benefit from economies of scale and discounts.
We welcome the chance to show off our facilities to you, or we can meet at your place, but there's no obligation.

Send your enquiry to info@btbmf.co.uk or call one of our friendly experts on 01234 848415 >>

We Are Part of the World's Third Largest Postal Services and Fulfilment Services Group

BTB Mailflight is still run by the founding family, and most of the Senior Management Board have worked for BTB Mailflight for over ten years, however in 2008 the majority of BTB Mailflight’s shares were acquired by the La Poste Group.

The company is still the hard working and friendly company that our clients and employees know, but we do also have significant backing from a global leader and can now offer more services than ever before.

The La Poste Group is the world’s third largest postal and fulfilment group, here are some key facts about the La Poste Group:

La Poste is Europe’s second largest postal operator, and the world’s third largest
La Poste Group’s total turnover rose by 3.8% in 2007 to reach 20,819 million euros, representing 3% growth.
1.3 billion euro profit in 2007.
Most trusted brand in France.
Members of International Post Corporation (IPC).
Proactive expansion plans worldwide i.e. they own:
- Brokers Worldwide in USA,
- BTB Mailflight in UK
- Denkhaus in Germany/Benelux
- Deutsche Paket Dienst (DPD) in Germany and UK
- Sofipost in Italy
- Docapost gloabally
As well as their own facilities they also have strategic alliances in many other countries worldwide too.

Our Quality Standards and Industry Accreditations

BTB Mailflight takes quality very seriously and we have achieved the following mailing servives, fulfilment, and response handling industry accreditations:

Direct Marketing Association (DMA) approved.
DMA Response Handling Commitment Scheme Accredited.
Founding member of the International Mail Consolidators Association (MCA).
Founding member of IMDAS (International Mail Distribution Accreditation Scheme).
Royal Mail Bronze Member, Mailing House Scheme.
Associate Member of the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA).
- ‘Highly Commended’ by PPA at Magazine Production Awards 2006.

As well as the above mailing services accreditations we have also achieved the following national benchmark quality standards:

NQA ISO9001:2008 Accredited
ISO14001 Accredited
Achieved Investors in People status (IIP)
Data protection Act registered

We highly recommend that before considering mailing houses that you ensure they are accredited by the mailing services, fulfilment and postal industry. Mailing houses that do not provide high quality direct mail fulfilment services and reliable postal services can end up costing you money and damaging your brand. We are proof that you can get high quality mailing services at competitive fulfilment rates and low UK and international postage rates.

We do not pay lip-service to quality, our CEO actually helped found the Mail Consolidators Association and the International Mail Distribution Accreditation Scheme.

Case Studies

Our direct mail campaign services are used by hundreds of organisations from a variety of sectors including:

High volume acquisition direct mail fulfilment for a leading international publisher
Weekly fulfilment of direct mail for a high profile Media Group
Monthly and weekly letter mailings for a well known banking group
Mass volume direct mailings for a prestigious clothing retailer
International direct mail campaigns for a leading auction house
UK and international direct mail fulfilment and distribution for a leading university

Many of these clients use us to handle their complete direct mail campaign which includes:

Providing mailing list and data services
Sourcing their print and materials (envelopes, letterhead, leaflets, membership cards, polythene etc)
Fulfilling their direct mail campaign
Posting their direct mail using our postal solution

Handling all of this for our direct mail clients saves them time and hassle, as well as the potential to save money.

Guide to Choosing Print, Mailing and Fulfilment Houses and Postal Suppliers

Fulfilment houses are not all the same, and price is just one important factor to consider when deciding on the right fulfilment houses for you.

Fulfilment houses vary significantly, in size, capabilities, experience, credentials, direct mail services offered, quality, and of course fulfilment prices and postage rates. We would always advice you to visit the fulfilment houses you are considering working with, and our CEO Ian Kavanagh recommends these are the questions to get answered.

Do they have the fulfilment house capabilities you require?

BTB Mailflight operates a 43,000 sq ft direct mailing house (envelope inserting, lettershop, polywrapping etc), a 63,000 sq ft direct mail order fulfillment centre, a 20 seat Contact Centre, our own international postal solution (Uk postage prices and international postage prices), a data services department, and print management team. That is a service range that other mailing fulfillment houses will find hard to beat!

Do they have the capacity to handle your direct mailings?

BTB Mailflight is one of the largest UK direct mailing houses. We print, polywrap, envelope enclose, pick and pack millions of direct mail pieces a month. With large capacity and sophisticated production planning systems you can be sure we can fit in your direct mailings, and if you are ever late with materials we can always see what we can do to still meet your direct mailing date i.e. run the direct mailing across more machines, gear up an extra crew etc. We have several collections each day from Royal Mail, alternative UK postal services, international postal services, and courier companies.

Do they have capacity if your direct mailing volumes grow?

BTB Mailflight has impressive growth plans and we continually invest in new direct mail machinery and production space. Examples of this are our recent purchase of a 5th Sitma polywrapping line, and our move to a Order fulfillment Centre that is twice the size of our previous operation. We have several collections each day from Royal Mail, alternative UK postal services, international postal services, and courier companies and we can request more collections if mailing volumes grow, which will only help us agree lower postage prices too.

Are they direct mail industry accredited?

BTB Mailflight has achieved many accreditations from the direct mailing, fulfilment, postal, and response handling industries. We are one of few direct mail fulfilment houses to achieve all of these. Remember if you get offered fulfilment prices and postage rates that sound too good to be true they probably are, and you should check the mailing house is undustry accredited.

Do their fulfilment houses have a documented quality policy?

BTB Mailflight is ISO9001:2000 accredited so all of our procedures are documented in our quality manual. This covers our direct mailing house operation and our order fulfilment centres.

What is their account management structure? Is it the same at all of their fulfilment houses?

BTB Mailflight aims to provide unrivalled client service. As one of the UK's most experienced direct mail fulfillment houses we have developed our account management culture since 1969 to be proactive, reactive, accessible, reliable, approachable and professional. We also aim to offer advice wherever possible, and this website also provides useful resources.

What are their technology investment plans?

The future of direct communications is a more intelligent approach utilising database marketing, CRM and personalised mailings and BTB Mailflight's UK direct mailing house is investing in these developments. We are also expecting to see global developments, with more print, fulfilment, polywrapping, and postage taking place in local markets, and we are part of the La Poste Group so are well placed to meet this growing demand for a global approach. In fact we can already offer local solutions and discounted postage rates within some other countries as well as postage prices from the UK..

Can they provide maximum postage rates discounts for all of you mailing types?

UK direct mail fulfilment houses can help clients achieve UK postage prices discounts, not all direct mail fulfilment houses are licensed by Royal Mail to undertake Mailsort, or OCR or CBC direct mailings though, but BTB Mailflight are. In addition to this BTB Mailflight can also work to the requirements of UK Mail, TNT, DHL etc, and provide postage prices discounts on international postage that can be market leading, this includes mailing direct mail, polywrapping mailings i.e. catalogue mailings and magazine mailings, business mail, packets and parcels using our international postal services to achieve postal prices discounts.

What direct mail services can they handle?

Can they handle consumer direct mail, B2B direct mail, magazine mailings, catalogue mailings, business direct mail, and packets and parcels? BTB Mailflight can handle all manner of direct mail campaigns, and we provide the direct mail support services you would expect including cleaning direct mail lists, sourcing direct mail lists, print management of direct mail materials i.e. envelopes, letterheads, direct mail leaflets, direct mail brochures etc, handling the direct mail fulfilment, the postage of the direct mail (UK Mailsort and international mail fulfilment services), and direct mail response handling.

Can they provide added value services as well as mail fulfilment services?

BTB Mailflight is not just a direct mail fulfilment houses, a lettershop business, or a polywrapping company. As well as direct mail fulfilment and order fulfilment we offer several support services, including print management, materials procurement, data management, data procurement services, and postage prices discounts.

What postal services can they offer you?

BTB Mailflight is part of the La Poste Group, the world's third largest postal services and fulfilment services group (and Europe's second largest postal services and fulfilment services group). We can offer a wide range of UK postal services and UK postage rates. This includes being one of Royal Mail's largest fulfilment services partners, and we offer downstream access UK postal services and postage rates too, so our postal services include Mailsort, Presstream, first class postal services, second class postal services, and Mailsort 3 UK postal services. We can also provide discounted postal prices for packet mailing services and courier services. As part of the La Poste group, and as one of the UK's leading international mail consolidators we can provide the widest range of international postal services (international postage rates) as well as UK postal services (UK postage rates). We can provide cheap postal services and postage prices worldwide, much of the post we mail is direct mail being mailed to Europe, but a lot of companies also use our postal services for distribution of direct mail to the USA, Africa and the Middle East, and our cheapest international postage rates are actually often postage to the Far East, Australasia, and South America. Mailings to the developing world are on the increase and our international postage prices are very attractive.

How experienced are they at providing mailing fulfilment services, and UK postal services, and international postal services?

Established in 1969 BTB Mailflight is one of the most experienced UK and international fulfilment houses (direct mail fulfilment, lettershop, polywrapping etc). We have also had our order fulfilment centre for over 15 years, and our print and data services have grown over the past 20 years. Our international postal services are over 25 years old, and the La Poste Group has been providing postage prices for hundreds of years!

Are they financially stable?

BTB Mailflight has been a profitable business for nearly 40 years, in this time many fulfilment houses have not been successful. Also, as part of the La Poste Group BTB Mailflight has the backing of a €20 billion organisation that is the world's third largest postal services and fulfilment services group, so is going from strength to strength. Our position in the market will only get better and our UK postage prices and our international postage rates lower.

Where are they located?

Both our direct mailing house (direct mail fulfilment, lettershop, polywrapping etc) and our order fulfilment center and contact centre are located in Bedford, Bedfordshire in the UK, we have excellent road links as both the M1 and A1 pass through Bedfordshire and are within a fifteen minute drive, and with another operation close to Heathrow (a short motorway drive from Bedfordshire) we are at the heart of the international mail market too. We also have close links with our group companies and print and postal partners across the world, including Europe, USA, South America, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Far East, and Australasia.