HAYS GRANTED FIRST LONG-TERM LICENCE BY POSTCOMM

23 December 2002

                                   HAYS GRANTED FIRST LONG-TERM LICENCE BY POSTCOMM                                    

Competition in postal services took a major step forward today when Postcomm awarded Hays the first long term licence
to introduce additional mail services for businesses.

The licence, which will run for a minimum of seven years, will allow Hays DX to deliver business mail to any business
address in the UK, with a range of innovative and unique service options.

The most important new services that Hays DX can now offer are

(a)   A door to door pre 8:00 am next day mail delivery service in the  
      UK for all business to business mail emanating from Hays Document 
      Exchange member.                                                  

(b)   A tracked, business to business, next day, door to door, mail     
      delivery service. Images of the mail item, complete with details 
      of its progress through the system, will be available on the      
      internet to sender or recipient as the item is moved through the  
      Hays DX delivery network.                                         

'We are delighted to have been awarded this licence by Postcomm', commented Neil Tregarthen, Managing Director, Hays
Mail & Express. 'For the first time customers will have a choice of supplier for the delivery of letters to business
addresses across the UK. We believe our range of services will set new standards for time-critical business mail
delivery, and bring a new era of choice for UK businesses'.

                                                        -ends-                                                         

Enquiries:

David Sibbick, Director of Regulatory Affairs, Hays DX on 01753 631320

Neil Tregarthen, Managing Director, Hays Mail and Express Services on 01753 631629

Jon Coles, Brunswick on 0207 404 5959

Editor's Notes:

1.   Hays DX already carries one million items of mail each day on      
     behalf of 30,000 customers with delivery throughout the British    
     Isles. It is the largest private sector mail business in the UK   

2.   Hays DX applied for a further licence in August of this year. The 
     licence, issued today by Postcomm following a detailed and thorough
     examination of our application, and a statutory process of public  
     consultation with a wide range of interested parties, allows us to:

    a)  collect from any business address, and deliver to any business  
         address the following working day, provided that for every      
         letter carried there is compensation for service failure,       
         tracking at various points, and confirmation to the sender that 
         delivery has taken place.                                       

    b)  provide enhanced document exchange services for contracted      
         document exchange members, involving the collection of all mail,
         streaming from it that which we are permitted to deliver through
         our own systems and passing the rest to Royal Mail. Hays DX is 
         permitted to deliver to a business address in the UK any mail   
         from a document exchange business customer (currently 25,000)   
         provided the letter is delivered before 8:00 am the following   
         day.                                                            

    c)  collect from any address and deliver to any address bulk mail   
         defined as a single mailing from a single customer at a single  
         site of not less than 4000 items in near-identical format.      

    d)  collect, sort, consolidate and trunk mail for subsequent        
         conveyance by Royal Mail.                                       

3.   The new licence will have a minimum initial duration of 7 years.  
     It will take effect from 1 January 2003.                           

4.   Hays was the first company to be granted a postal services licence 
     for limited new competition in September 2001. This new licence   
     replaces and expands the previous interim licence granted by       
     Postcomm.