MILKMEN will soon be delivering post following Express Dairies' decision to extend its mail operations as part of a deal with TNT Mail.

The dairy business, which merged with Lurpak and Anchor foods group Arla in October, has signed a two-year agreement to deliver non-time sensitive mail, such as catalogues, to more than six million UK households.

Arla, which has a milk processing plant in Longbenton, North Tyneside, announced the deal at the same time as results covering the first five months of trading since the merger of Express with the UK section of Europe's largest dairy co-operative group.

But an Arla spokeswoman said last night that none of the mail items would be delivered in the North-East or North Yorkshire.

Express has three years' experience of delivering mail items and uses a network of 1,420 delivery rounds and nearly 100 depots for the distribution of books, CDs, contact lenses and photographs.

The tie-up will also enable TNT Mail to extend its reach in the UK as it seeks to become the main challenger to Royal Mail. Figures for the six months to March 31 are distorted by the deal, but sales for the period were £697.9m, with underlying pre-tax profits of £21.1m.