Royal Mail profit up to £67m

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/busin ... 65596.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Royal Mail reported increased half-year profits of £67 million today, but revealed a further slump in the number of letters being posted.

Profit for the six months to September was up from £22 million in the same period a year ago, but was entirely due to revenue from GLS European parcels and the Post Office business.

The delivery arm of the Royal Mail lost £41 million - down from £55 million a year ago - with the daily postbag falling by 6% to 59 million items, the lowest for around 20 years.

The number of employees has been cut by 5,000 in the past year, including 2,000 managers, reducing the Royal Mail's workforce to 163,000, about 50,000 less than a decade ago.

GLS made a profit of £58 million, and Post Office Limited made £55 million, with the group's financial performance and cash flow showing improvements.

Chief executive Moya Greene said "painful changes" remained to be made to secure the group's future, including increased automation and more mail centre closures.

"Our financial performance at the group level in the first half of our financial year, including our cash flow, shows some improvement on the same period a year ago.

"The necessary measures we implemented earlier in the year - increasing our prices and tight cost control - are a key part of our strategy to return Royal Mail to sustained financial viability. They are beginning to deliver results. But we have a great deal to do.

"We are halfway through our financial year and are operating within a difficult and challenging business environment. The economic downturn is proving to be prolonged and, like many other predominantly UK and European-based companies, our trading conditions are challenging.

"Our focus therefore remains on returning to sustained financial viability. We will continue to reduce our costs wherever possible without compromising the six-days-a-week service.

"We look forward to working with Ofcom to secure a new regulatory approach as the need to do so is pressing. Furthermore, it will be essential for Royal Mail that the European Commission approves the Government's state aid application to relieve the company of its historic pension liability and allow restructuring of the Royal Mail balance sheet."

Ms Greene said she was "moderately pleased" with the financial results, but she maintained there was still a "great deal" to do to return the Royal Mail to sustained financial viability.

Around 20 million fewer letters are being posted every day than five years ago, taking the daily postbag to its lowest total in 20 years, although there has been an increase in packets and parcels being posted, largely as a result of the internet.

The number of mail-processing centres has reduced by 10 to 59 in recent years and the trend will continue, said Ms Greene.

On the Government's plans to privatise the Royal Mail, Ms Greene said the business will not be able to interest investors until the "blocks" of regulation, state aid and modernisation are removed.

[POSTMAN]

https://www.myroyalmail.com/moyasview/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Moya says...

We’ve announced our interim financial results.

We have made some good progress – our financial performance is beginning to improve. For the first time in some time, we have earned more cash than we have spent. That is a major achievement – thank you for all your efforts over the last twelve months. Twelve months ago, we were in a regulatory straitjacket and burning cash. Now we have had clear signals from Ofcom that it intends to deregulate. It is not a done deal, however.

We have only just started our journey. There is a long way to go. We have to reshape our business and deliver our vital modernisation programme. We have to generate profitable growth, through major opportunities like parcels, direct mail and advertising. We need to consistently deliver for our customers, the same way, every day, everywhere all the time.

Our financial and business performance

- An operating profit of £67 million, up from £22 million in 2010
- Free cash inflow of £309 million compared to a £52 million outflow
- Our core Universal Service activities continue to be loss making. But, the losses have narrowed from £55 million to £41 million
- The Group would have been loss making overall were it not for the important contributions made by both GLS and POL
- Our margin on sales, after modernisation charges, improved from 0.5 per cent to 1.5%. It is modest compared with other European postal operators.
- Letter volumes have declined by 6%; packet volumes are up 5%.
- The pension deficit has increased from £4.5 billion to £4.6 billion

Outlook
The maximum period of change for the Group is now. Our industry is in decline with letters now accounting for a very modest share of total daily messaging. Our overall objective is to return our company to financial viability on a sustainable basis and to attract external capital.

We are operating within a difficult and challenging business environment. The economic downturn is proving to be prolonged. Like many other predominantly UK and European-based companies, our trading conditions are challenging. Our focus remains on returning to sustained financial viability.
We also look forward to working with Ofcom to secure a new regulatory approach as the need to do so is pressing. Furthermore, it will be essential for Royal Mail that the European Commission approves the Government’s State Aid application to lift the burden from the company of the historic pension liability and significantly reduce the level of debt on the Royal Mail balance sheet.

Thank you again for your great efforts. Let’s keep working together to make our company great again.

[POSTMAN]

https://www.myroyalmail.com/mrm/appnews ... aspx?i=291" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Half year results announced

Monday 21 November

We’ve made an operating profit of £67 million, up from £22 million in 2010.

But we would have been loss making if not for the contributions from GLS and Post Office Ltd.

Our Universal Service activities are still loss making.

These losses have narrowed from £55 million to £41 million.

For the first time in a long time we’ve earned more money than we have spent.

Our margin on sales has also improved, but it is still modest compared to other European postal operators.

But letter volumes have fallen by 6%.

This decline is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

We are now handling around 59 million items a day, compared to around 80 million in 2005-6.

Packet volumes, however, are up 5% as online shopping grows at pace.

Modernisation
Modernisation has made significant progress.

But it has taken longer to start fully delivering results than we had planned.

More than half our mail is now walk sequenced.

We have almost 40,000 hand-held devices and nearly 6,500 new, smaller delivery vans.

We now have more than 800 new or upgraded machines in the operation.

Nearly 300 delivery revisions have been completed, out of some 1,400.

This programme will go on through 2012-13.

[fishtank]

Nearly 300 delivery revisions have been completed, out of some 1,400.

This programme will go on through 2012-13.

Less than 300.
That's bad...and wasn't the original plan to have at least 2 revisions in most offices over the lifetime of the agreement?

[POSTMAN]

Full report here...
http://www.cwu.org/assets/_files/docume ... nal%29.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[TrueBlueTerrier]

CWU says Royal Mail results should reward staff http://www.cwu.org/news/archive/cwu-say ... staff.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Commenting on Royal Mail's half year financial results today (Monday) - which show operating profit up by £45 million and improvements in all parts of the business - the Communication Workers Union says the improvement in performance should be shared with its workers and calls for greater job security, including no compulsory redundancies.

0Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: "Better performance and improved profits is welcome news for Royal Mail and its staff - but the industry still faces major challenges to secure its future. We want this success to be shared with postal workers in the form of higher pay and a commitment to job security, with an extension to Royal Mail's commitment to completing modernisation with no compulsory redundancies.

"The modernisation programme has brought major change, including voluntary job losses, new machinery and equipment and changes to workplaces. It's been difficult for both postal workers and customers and rewarding staff is the right thing to do. The current talks we're in with the company are crucial to maintaining the successful modernisation of Royal Mail and in those we're seeking commitments on pay and job security.

"Royal Mail workers know what's going on in terms of competition and change in the industry and the crucial thing is to reward and motivate postal workers. Any redundancies must be voluntary, not forced, and the postal service must be protected. Without that it doesn't matter what you do. The progress so far proves this can be successfully achieved under public ownership and clearly shows the importance of keeping the group of businesses - letters, Post Office, Parcelforce and GLS - integrated. Breaking this business up would be a disaster for UK postal services."

Read Royal Mail's half year financial results 2011 - 2012 in full.

CWU represents Royal Mail workers across the UK.

[DGP1]

Does this mean that our managers wont be using the 'Royal Mail will run out of money by (insert your preferred month/year)'

[trythat]

"The delivery arm of the Royal Mail lost £41 million - down from £55 million a year ago - with the daily postbag falling by 6% to 59 million items, the lowest for around 20 years.
The number of employees has been cut by 5,000 in the past year, including 2,000 managers, reducing the Royal Mail's workforce to 163,000, about 50,000 less than a decade ago."



So where is our bonus's for extra efficiency etc, we are delivering roughly the same as when I started over 20 years ago (Don't forget that mail and not D2D, so in truth I expect we're shifting more), we're at least 50,000+ less staff, so I'm at least 25% more efficient, plus the extra D2D and of course packets. I doubt whether my standard of living has risen by the same as my efficiency.

As usual the rich and management will get bonus's and a better wage rise, than us foot soldiers actually making the money!!