Spanish Correos registers substantial increase in pre-tax profits

Correos, the Spanish postal service operator, managed to increase pre-tax profits by 125 per cent to 186m euros last year although the company received fewer state subsidies than in 2002. The group received only 0.97m euros instead of 5.6m euros in subsidies for the coverage of postal services across the whole country.

In 1999, the group received subsidies of 54.4m euros. Subsidies for the modernisation of the group’s infrastructure remained unchanged at 85.3m euros last year. Correos highlights that it delivered 2.6 per cent more mail last year than in 2002, while many other European postal service operators have seen their mail volumes fall. Net turnover rose by 5.4 per cent to around 1.7bn euros compared to 2002. Correos intends to invest 750m euros until 2006 in order to automate its mail services and to diversify its activities. Management is hoping that non-postal services will account for 35 per cent of turnover in 2010 compared to 15 per cent at present.