As an expeditor, at work I spend probably 50% of my time writing to businesses.
Correspondence is about 90% email so the endings I recieve are quite curious. By and large however, it's almost always 'Kind regards' which is ultimately a friendly ending. If replying to a response that has been helpful to me, I will quite often end with 'Many thanks'.
I wouldn't use that in a letter though, in fact so long ago was it since I last wrote a letter (as against writing an email) I couldn't remember how to end it so found this forum for advice.
So why wouldn't I end a letter with 'Kind regards'? I think it's the culture of email in that they were invented to be brief or chatty and not intended to be used as a business tool. That they (emails) have now mainly superceded letters, certainly in my line of work, probably means the end of Dear Sir, Yours Faithfully etc. apart from those sent by your bank advising how much you are overdrawn once more.
Yours.......
(Now, how do I end this message correctly?
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