Isle of Man Post Office spent more than £94,000 on employing a UK-based salesman - who brought in less than £4,000 in revenue.

Details emerged in a written reply to a Tynwald question.

In its strategic business case brought to the December Tynwald sitting last year, the Post Office listed as a key strategy: ’a UK sales presence to increase our off-island customer base and UK partnerships’.

But Tynwald was told that following a review of the role in January, the contract was terminated.

Ramsey LibVan MHK Lawrie Hooper asked: ’What the appointment of the Isle of Man Post Office UK salesperson has cost to date; and what the value of new business generated by this post has been?’

Post Office chairman Julie Edge replied that the UK-based salesperson was employed by the Post Office from January 2018.

The objective was to identify and test the UK market for viable potential sales opportunities, specifically to provide mail response handling, and exploit the Isle of Man’s competitively priced ’first-class’ postage services.

But Mrs Edge said: ’A review of the role was undertaken in January 2019 and the decision was taken to terminate the contract.’

She told Tynwald: ’Costs incurred for the period of employment were £94,134 (comprising salary, National Insurance and expenses).

’Revenue of £3,900 was generated by the employee during the period of employment, along with valuable new relationships with several large UK mail response processing companies.’

’These will now be developed by our locally based sales team with a view to attracting new business to the Isle of Man.’

Isle of Man Post Office is due to present its strategy to Tynwald in October.