25% profit increase yet big wigs spell doom and gloom

lightningpostman · Post by **lightningpostman** » 18 May 2017, 19:31

so what gives.

how can the company we work for whose declared a 25% increase in profits sell us aload of proganda filled pile of nonsense.

surely this sort of thing is not even legal , its all doom and gloom

"letters are down parcels are not making up for it"

what a load of Bull

"Royal Mail's annual profits have jumped 25% thanks to better-than-expected growth in its parcel delivery business.

Parcel deliveries rose 3% thanks to shoppers' insatiable appetite for online shopping, although the number of letters posted fell by 6%.

Royal Mail put the rise in parcels down to upgraded computer systems, which allow the packages to be sorted faster.

Pre-tax profits rose to £335m in the year to 26 March from £267m, while revenues grew 1% to £9.8bn.

The market reacted positively, sending shares up nearly 4% to 446.8p to highs not seen since January.

Chief executive Moya Greene said: "We have made good progress against all of our strategic priorities. This has been a more challenging period for UK businesses and we have come through it well."
Brexit impact

Despite the boost in profits, the company was cautious over its prospects in the UK, where it makes three-quarters of total sales.

The fall in letter deliveries was at the higher end of expectations, with the company blaming uncertainty over the Brexit referendum for the decline.

"This [fall] reflected the levels of business uncertainty following the EU Referendum and a strong prior year which saw a one-off return of direct delivery volumes," it said.

The company is also unlikely to cash in heavily from the upcoming general election, as it admitted the short campaign would mean revenues were likely to be below that seen from mailing sent out during last year's EU referendum and 2015's general election.

Royal Mail's letters business in the UK struggled, with letter volumes down 6%, but this was offset to some extent by the company's parcels operations.

Helped by a huge 50% market share for parcel deliveries in the UK, Royal Mail managed to improve its revenues by 3% to £3.3bn.
'Force for growth'

But the business's most impressive performance came from its overseas division - General Logistics Systems (GLS) - where sales jumped 9% to £2.5bn.

Ms Green said: "GLS is performing very well and is growing revenue organically and through acquisitions.

"Its deep expertise and focus on B2B parcels in multiple geographies - now 41 European countries and seven states in the US - positions it to be a greater force for growth for the company.

"We will continue to invest in careful and focused international expansion by GLS."

Despite the strong performance from its international operation, the company described its Italian and French businesses as "challenging" and said it had lost out in Germany due to a rise in the minimum wage.

But the City was impressed overall, with the share price rising almost 4% in early trading, sending the stock to a four month high of 446.8p."

Post by **Judgee** » 18 May 2017, 19:54

"letter volumes down 6%"

Where? where the feck are letter volumes down ffs!!!!

TheTrolleyMan · Post by **TheTrolleyMan** » 18 May 2017, 20:20

IT doesn't matter if letters are down because we do the same job as Hermes or DPD etc , or we do when it suits RM

borgpicard · Post by **borgpicard** » 18 May 2017, 20:42

Queen bitc h, moya, feeds us this s**t of doom and gloom so she can give herself and even bigger bonus. maybe she should share her bonus with us, greedy bitc h.

telithowitis · Post by **telithowitis** » 18 May 2017, 20:53

I would be interested to know if the 6%? fall in letters is just Royal Mail letters and doesn't include the ones we deliver for our competitors e.g. U.K. Mail etc.
Anyone know?

nickbsmooth · Post by **nickbsmooth** » 18 May 2017, 21:07

Maybe they can reward staff with longer contracts or employ additional staff,so people can get lieu days.
They'll probably just turn the screws some more.

weary_posty · Post by **weary_posty** » 18 May 2017, 21:08

We'll be receiving a nice healthy dividend...

That'll keep up happy and not wanting to push forward industrial action over our pensions...

Post by **Brandy** » 18 May 2017, 22:36

ranger1 wrote:
borgpicard wrote:Queen bitc h, moya, feeds us this s**t of doom and gloom so she can give herself and even bigger bonus. maybe she should share her bonus with us, greedy bitc h.

The staff... should get some sort of bonus.. for all the hard work making a 25% increase in profits..

I agree so they should,but they wont all the poor posties will get will be more lies and more bullying from the managers!!!!

Post by **woody38** » 18 May 2017, 23:16

Never unstandardised why managers bother with flex, other might call it different but in the Weat Midlands it is called flex, at our office we hav 2 jobs flexed but hardly anybody takes much one job more than the other, managers are having to take it now because there is so much left & nobody to do it

LouBarlow · Post by **LouBarlow** » 19 May 2017, 10:09

I can actually believe the drop in letters being that high, but unfortunately all the other work we do in other areas, makes up for it and then some. Delivering more parcels than ever before. Doing more IPS than ever before (due to lack of FT staff) and suddenly you don't notice the reduction. Saying that, even though letter volumes are down, I still find myself going to most houses every day, and as we aren't getting out early (see the IPS complaint before) it doesn't make the delivery any quicker.

Post by **wacko74** » 19 May 2017, 13:35

Said it before but I'll say it again... One of RM's mantras is that we ''lose money on every letter we deliver''

So if that is the case surely a decline in letters should be great news!

rubberbond · Post by **rubberbond** » 19 May 2017, 13:36

LouBarlow wrote:I can actually believe the drop in letters being that high, but unfortunately all the other work we do in other areas, makes up for it and then some. Delivering more parcels than ever before. Doing more IPS than ever before (due to lack of FT staff) and suddenly you don't notice the reduction. Saying that, even though letter volumes are down, I still find myself going to most houses every day, and as we aren't getting out early (see the IPS complaint before) it doesn't make the delivery any quicker.

You might believe the figures, however, i for one don't. I used to have 1 tray of mechanised mail and a bundle,now it's 3 and a bundle,the only mail that is down, in all likelihood is stamped mail. The rest of it is growing exponentially. We keep taking on more staff,albeit part time,but taken them on nonetheless.

clashcityrocker · Post by **clashcityrocker** » 19 May 2017, 16:14

I think they need to have a closer look at GLS.
If that could be even more profitable, they could just subsidise the rest of us.

jetblack · Post by **jetblack** » 19 May 2017, 16:25

I wonder if this will make them reconsider the (non)affordability of the various employee pension plans currently on the table

fishtank · Post by **fishtank** » 19 May 2017, 16:31

clashcityrocker wrote:I think they need to have a closer look at GLS.
If that could be even more profitable, they could just subsidise the rest of us.

I think that's a goer, with the prevalent anti-European sentiment in the UK a further reduction in the terms and conditions of our continental colleagues would probably be more popular than a quiet Tuesday in a London office. Take that Brussels and your overbearing rights for workers and health and safety concerns. Viva Farage!!