POSTAL business Whistl, which has a delivery depot in Westbrook, has suspended its door-to-door delivery service in London, Liverpool and Manchester and is consulting 2,000 workers on redundancy.

The move follows a decision last month by potential investment partner LDC not to fund its expansion plans.

A spokesman for the Dutch-owned company, formerly known as TNT Post, said the door to door – or end to end (E2E) – deliveries which had been suspended would revert back to Royal Mail, so customers would not be affected.

A company statement said: “Following the announcement from LDC that it would not proceed with the proposed investment to fund further rollout of E2E we have now commenced an extensive review of the viability and potential for the rollout of an E2E postal delivery service in the UK.

“To stem the losses from the operations we have taken the difficult decision to suspend the current E2E service during the review process and all mail will now be delivered through our long-standing downstream access service until we have concluded the review.

“As part of this extensive review, we will begin consultations with the relevant employees who are affected by the suspension of the E2E service, and with their union representatives, with a view to identifying and exploring viable proposals to secure the continuation of this service.”

In a letter to staff, Whistl chief executive Nick Wells said the decision to suspend deliveries had been taken to stem losses.

The letter adds: “As a result of this I regret to inform you that your position is 'at risk' of redundancy. I state 'at risk' because no final decisions will be made until full consultation has taken place.”

Mr Wells said the company intended to carry out a “full and effective” consultation, with workers represented by their union, Community.

Staff were told that Whistl was looking at options to secure its longer-term financial viability.

Workers will be paid their normal rate for the rest of the week but will not be paid while the consultation is held.

According to Whistl’s website, the company processes more than 26 per cent of all the UK’s mail. It changed its name after the split of the TNT Group in 2011.