BRITAIN'S biggest online parcel delivery service has revealed that last year's postal strike helped it double its business.

And Bolton-based Parcel2go.com says it has managed to maintain the overnight growth achieved during the dispute.

Royal Mail staff staged a series of strikes last October in which tens of thousands of Communications Workers Union members staged walk outs in a row over pay, pensions and job security.

Parcel2go.com, which is based in Coe Street, near Bolton town centre, has reported a 115 per cent rise in orders since the industrial action.

The company claims the strike has led to a fundamental shift in the way people post packages.

Richard Adams-Mercer, business development director, said: "We have seen a move to us and away from Post Office counters."

"The strike forced both businesses and private individuals to reconsider how they sent parcels."

"We saw a doubling in the volume of packages we were handling literally overnight."

"We have maintained that performance partially because of Royal Mail’s price rises and because people have realised that they can get better value and have parcels — big and small — collected from them instead of having to take it to a post office themselves."

Parcel2go.com says it handled 21,000 orders in September last year and within a month that figure had shot up to more than 43,000.

The extra business added £200,000 to the company’s monthly turnover in the space of a few weeks, growth which has been sustained.

This year, the firm expects turnover to top £10 million.