Royal Mail Group plc is a British multinational postal service and courier company, originally established in 1516 as a department of the English government. The company's subsidiary Royal Mail Group Limited operates the brands Royal Mail (letters) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels). General Logistics Systems, an international logistics company, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Mail Group. Other Royal Mail subsidiaries include eCourier, StoreFeeder, and Intersoft Systems & Programming. The group used the name Consignia for a brief period in the early 2000s.