FAMILY firm Parcel2go.com says it is on track to smash its £10m sales target as it scoops up Royal Mail customers amid anxiety over tomorrow's planned strikes.

The Bolton-based online parcel delivery service predicts sales of £12.5m for this financial year as it looks to retain customers it gains over the festive period.

Business development director Richard Adams-Mercer said it had seen a 15 per cent increase in business this week.

Richard, son of founder and chief executive Fil Adams-Mercer, said: "We expect an increase in business at this time of the year but this is out of the ordinary. Even though the strike is expected to be brief, the suggestion that it will hamper pre-Christmas deliveries has created something of a fear factor."

On top of the 15 per cent increase earlier in the month, the company expects to handle 20,000 packages in the final week before Christmas - up 22 per cent on last year's figures.

Richard said: "It was the same with the last strike in October 2007, when our business doubled overnight. The great thing is we managed to hang on to those customers and that's what we want to do again."

Parcel2go.com operates an internet portal so individuals and SMEs can arrange deliveries of parcels by carriers such as FedEX, DHL and City Link.

The company is popular with people using online trading site eBay, as parcels are collected directly from sellers' homes, and delivered anywhere in the world.

Parcels can be collected up to Monday for delivery in time for Christmas. Royal Mail workers in Stockport, Bolton, Crewe, Coventry and Oxford are planning a 24-hour walkout tomorrow - the day before the last Christmas posting day for first class letters - in a row over office closures.

Parcel2go.com employs 35 staff at its Coe Street offices and handles more than 750,000 parcels a year.