Bpost handling 420,000 parcels a day in run-up to Christmas

Bpost has hired 900 seasonal workers at its sorting offices to cope with a surge in parcels this week - but deliveries from Amazon could be delayed because of a strike at the retailer's warehouses in Germany.

The Belgian post office is expecting to handle 420,000 parcels a day in the run-up to Christmas. The figure is up 25% on the same time last year.

"Our work started to intensify earlier this year, because of Black Friday and Cyber Monday at the end of November," said a Bpost spokesperson. "The number of parcels processed per day has now reached a record high."

On Tuesday, Bpost will donate 20 cents for each parcel delivered to VRT's Music for Life and RTBF's Viva for Life charity campaigns.

Staff working for the German division of Amazon walked out on strike on Sunday night as unions keep up a campaign to make management sign a collective labour agreement. The industrial action could affect deliveries in this last week before Christmas.

Meanwhile, Belgium's only wrapping paper producer, near Kortrijk, is already busy printing next Christmas's gift wrap.

Rotolux prints 20,000km a year of paper - half of which is Christmas gift wrap, sold mostly via the Ava chain of stores.

"We work a year in advance, which means that we are already on Christmas 2019," said director Benjamin Praet. "The catalogue is ready and the trend is blue."

Photo: Eric Lalmand/Belga