The week that was: 21 May 2010
Big week at Royal Mail, Austrian Post sees revenue fall, and pilots go at UPS… Let’s start in the UK this week, with Royal Mail making all the big headlines. Privatisation is back on the cards as new UK prime minister David Cameron announced that the incoming coalition government will look to partially sell-off of the state-owned company. The plans were outlined in the ‘The Coalition: our programme for government’, a document put together by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, since an agreement to form a stable government between the two parties was reached last week. The new government said it will seek “an injection of private capital” into the company, but did not state how much of Royal Mail was up for grabs. The announcement came on the same day Royal Mail announced that Group profits had increased by 26%. But that news was put in perspective after the BBC revealed Royal Mail’s pension bill now stands at £8bn.
Into the continent now, and Austrian Post described the market environment as “difficult”, as it revealed a decline in Group revenue of 1.6% for Q1 2010. The company said Q1 revenue for 2010 dropped EUR 9.5m to EUR 585.6m, whilst announcing that the electronic substitution of letters is ongoing, as expected, whereas the advertising market is slowly improving. CEO Georg Pölzl said: “The current business development confirms our outlook for the year 2010 as a whole. We continue to expect that Group revenue will decline by 1-2% compared to 2009 but we will be able to maintain an EBITDA margin between 10% and 12%.”
The domino effect of recession continued over the Atlantic this week, where UPS has announced that its airline will lay-off 54 pilots next week – as a part of an overall process to furlough 300 pilots – originally announced in February. The move comes despite the company’s 2,800 pilots going through voluntary cost-cutting procedures, including wage cuts, unpaid holidays, and taking early retirement.
And finally…
In true Hollywood style, Post&Parcel is looking for volunteers to be interviewed on camera in Copenhagen next month at the World Mail Awards and the World Mail & Express Europe conference (15-17 June). Interested? I bet you are! Email: [email protected]
To book your place at the World Mail Awards, please click here to download a booking form. Alternatively, to attend the Awards ceremony and the World Mail & Express Europe Conference & Exhibition, please click here to book online.
