The week that was: 16 October 2009
Profit slumps, strikes (again) and raunchy novels… There seems to be a distinct lack of good news surrounding the industry over the past seven days, so rather than donning my spinster hat in order to give our fair readers some weekend cheer lets just delve right into the depressive stuff, shall we?
First up is Australia Post. As their latest set of financial results fell into my inbox this week it was clear to see that the recession had hit Australia Post much in the same way as its European, Asian and American counterparts. Fair play to the company’s scribes for donning their owning spinsters’ hat by labeling the results as “solid”, but by dropping down two paragraphs the reality was that the company recorded a pre-tax profit drop of 35.7%.
It recorded a pre-tax profit of $380.9m for 2008/9, compared to 2007/8’s record high of $592.2m.To be fair to Australia Post, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, as they revealed a revenue growth of $26.1m (or 0.5%) in 2008/09 to $5bn, with an increase in all three core business areas.
Reading these results reminded me of Royal Mail’s announcement of a rise in profits this summer – which leads me on to the next story. Strikes. Many people may be getting a little tired of reading about the recent industrial action that has taken place across the world in recent months, but it seems as though the topic reached fever pitch this week with the announcement of a national postal strike in the UK.
Although Royal Mail service has been dogged by constant disruptions up and down the country for months, it will grind completely to a halt on 22-23 October on the orders of the CWU. A heated exchange via open letters has been played out in the media – with Royal Mail’s Mark Higson describing the situation as “appalling’, whilst the union’s Dave Ward claimed the company’s management is “failing”.
Good news for the boys in yellow. Not the Brazilian football team, no, but DHL. They secured an extension to their contract with House of Fraser to the tune of £33.7m. House of Fraser’s supply chain director Mark Holland said: “I am delighted to extend the commercial agreement between DHL and House of Fraser.” Such delight was illustrated by House of Fraser’s decision to plaster the news over their shopping website. Playing off the misfortune of Royal Mail, the website reads: “Tired of postal strikes? Shop with us.” – Kick ’em while they’re down, huh?
And finally…
Back to Australia Post, where the company removed three literature titles from their outlets’ shelves after their sexually explicit content was deemed inappropriate. Lolita, The History of Sexuality and The Delta of Venus were taken off the shelves over concerns the books could offend customers. Perhaps after their latest financial results they should reinstate the books – and raise the price!
