letters down around 8% why profits halved?

[postmanzach]

What’s going on? Why have Royal Mail suddenly making some much less profit when the fall in letters is only 8%? Can someone explain this to me in fairly simple terms. Is it because of pay rises etc

[Hitcher]

Profit is what you make above the cost of running a business.

[Celgar]

RM has been investing in foreign courier companies some of which were not worth buying then the losses from this would write off profits and save on RMs corporation tax. Moya Greene did this as well when she was in charge. A lot of companies fiddle the figures for various reasons. Recently John Lewis said they had made no profit which is highly unlikely. Some companies do things such as claiming they don't own the name of their company and have to pay another entity to use the name. There are all kinds of dodgy practices with these characters.

[wacko74]

RM have a long and proud history of cooking the books when it comes to profit figures... many of us remember the sudden drop in annual profits for the year that our ''colleague shares'' were due to receive a payout, only for the profits to miraculously return to normal levels the following year.

RM are doing their best to make the profits and businesses prospects look as bad as possible at the moment to justify the changes they want to make in the face of any opposition from the CWU and OFCOM.

[postmanzach]

RM have a long and proud history of cooking the books when it comes to profit figures... many of us remember the sudden drop in annual profits for the year that our ''colleague shares'' were due to receive a payout, only for the profits to miraculously return to normal levels the following year.

RM are doing their best to make the profits and businesses prospects look as bad as possible at the moment to justify the changes they want to make in the face of any opposition from the CWU and OFCOM.

Thanks that’s sort of what I guessed, what with Rico buying thousands of shares.

[Newbie001]

RM have a long and proud history of cooking the books when it comes to profit figures... many of us remember the sudden drop in annual profits for the year that our ''colleague shares'' were due to receive a payout, only for the profits to miraculously return to normal levels the following year.

RM are doing their best to make the profits and businesses prospects look as bad as possible at the moment to justify the changes they want to make in the face of any opposition from the CWU and OFCOM.

Yeah, think they're playing long game here. Same with the phantom pay offer.
All the public are gonna hear is RM are struggling, shares through the floor, they've been offered pay rise but still want to strike. How do we explain to public without looking greedy, its not like they'll understand "the four pillars" not sure I do sometimes.
Union will be made the bad guys. And I get the impression they will be pressured into some crappy deal.
Terry thinks Rico will be shown the door. Maybe, just maybe this is all part of RMs plans.
Or maybe I'm giving them too much credit.

[k979aaa]

RM have a long and proud history of cooking the books when it comes to profit figures... many of us remember the sudden drop in annual profits for the year that our ''colleague shares'' were due to receive a payout, only for the profits to miraculously return to normal levels the following year.

RM are doing their best to make the profits and businesses prospects look as bad as possible at the moment to justify the changes they want to make in the face of any opposition from the CWU and OFCOM.

Yeah, think they're playing long game here. Same with the phantom pay offer.
All the public are gonna hear is RM are struggling, shares through the floor, they've been offered pay rise but still want to strike. How do we explain to public without looking greedy, its not like they'll understand "the four pillars" not sure I do sometimes.
Union will be made the bad guys. And I get the impression they will be pressured into some crappy deal.
Terry thinks Rico will be shown the door. Maybe, just maybe this is all part of RMs plans.
Or maybe I'm giving them too much credit.

It is like any other business it was sold off on the cheep for profit I blame those who chose to do this in the elections of the past and in the last election the truth of which will not be realised till the end of this year!

[postmanzach]

Profit is what you make above the cost of running a business.

I get that mate so are you implying the the costs of running Royal Mail have in the last year or two nearly doubled? What are you getting at?

Reading this has got me more confused tbh
https://markets.ft.com/data/equities/te ... ?s=RMG:LSE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Royal Mail PLC had net income fall -32.43% from 259.00m to 175.00m despite a 4.02% increase in revenues from 10.17bn to 10.58bn. An increase in the selling, general and administrative costs as a percentage of sales from 23.16% to 24.63% was a component in the falling net income despite rising revenues.

[postmanzach]

Where are the extra costs coming from in the last year? Revenue is up so the costs must have risen dramatically, wondering what these are? Or perhaps as has been said they just fiddling the figures for political moves

[wacko74]

The costs probably come from implementing the new ''parcels strategy'' buying or leasing the land, property and equipment for the new parcel hubs.

Also further to my theory that RM are doing everything possible to make income and profits look as poor as possible at the moment, has anyone else noticed a marked drop off in the amounts of D2D's we've had these last 2-3 months? In that time we've only been getting 1 lot a week at the most rather than the usual 3+ lots.

My suspicious mind thinks RM are currently turning down D2D contracts from customers as part of their plan to make income and profits look poor.

[rogersh]

According to the CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORT 2017– 18
ROYAL MAIL & PARCELFORCE (UK)
AROUND 14.4 BILLION LETTERS HANDLED BY ROYAL MAIL
1.2 BILLION PARCELS HANDLED BY ROYAL MAIL

So based on those figures, & taking account of the % reduction since that report, are we currently a letters-led international company that also delivers parcels.
Edit;
Corporate Responsibility Report 2018–19

13bn LETTERS

1.3bn UKPIL PARCELS

GLS PARCELS 634m

Defending letters – Letters are important to our customers. They account for 51 per cent of our UK revenue. We work with customers and supply chain partners to add value to mail, promote its effectiveness, and increase its efficiency.

[masterblaster]

Where are the extra costs coming from in the last year? Revenue is up so the costs must have risen dramatically, wondering what these are? Or perhaps as has been said they just fiddling the figures for political moves

Possibly too many lazy office staff (including managers after 9am) that have their longest loop to the coffee machine and back.

[postslippete]

Lies, damned lies and statistics?? Royal Mail have a knack of manipulating the figures especially when they really need to transform the business and make killer profits

[clashcityrocker]

My suspicious mind thinks RM are currently turning down D2D contracts from customers as part of their plan to make income and profits look poor.

I think RM are selling the PDA outdoor actual data to Huawei who will use it to harvest my organs while I am still alive.
Sorry does that sound far-fetched?

[tonytucker]

The job us f****d and we all know it now,a shane but its over .....