Fed secures major 10-year carriage charge freeze concession for members

After years of sustained lobbying by the Fed, including a recent meeting between senior officials and Smiths News, today’s news that carriage charges will be frozen for 10 years has been welcomed.

The move was announced as Smiths News also revealed that it has won a 10-year contract to exclusively distribute the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times across England, Wales and Scotland. This new contract will take effect from July 2027.

Commenting, National President Hetal Patel said: “Over a number of years, the Fed has met regularly with Smiths News executives and at every meeting we have stressed the key role that independent retailers play in the news supply chain and the challenges that members face from rising costs and retail crime.

“Last month we met with Smiths News again and were pleased to have the opportunity to hold full and frank discussions with its team about the challenges that members are facing.

“We emphasised the importance of protecting smaller news retailers and called for carriage charges to be reviewed again this year.

“Smiths News has listened to our concerns and, importantly, it has acted on them by taking the unprecedented decision to freeze carriage charges for a decade. This is a significant outcome for independent retailers at a time when many operating costs continue to rise.

“Doing this further underlines its commitment to making the news category more affordable.”

Mr Patel continued: “The news wholesaler has a clear strategy of diversification, providing a number of services alongside news delivery and a national footprint is key to these plans so the agreement between Smiths News and News UK is not surprising.

“However, the Fed has long opposed the concept of carriage charges since their inception, and we will be seeking guarantees that dual carriage charges in the new areas will be avoided, or an alternative solution is made available for our members.

“While we welcome this positive development, we will continue to fight our members’ corner and will press for a fair and sustainable news distribution system that works for all independent retailers.”