Lithuania Post cuts losses in first three quarters of 2012

Lithuania Post has said it has reduced its losses threefold during the first nine months of this year, which offers “grounds for optimism”. The national postal service for the Baltic republic sustained losses of just over LTL 1m during the nine months to the end of September 2012, compared to losses of LTL 3.3m (EUR 960,000) during the same period last year, according to unaudited figures.

Sales normally pick up during the last quarter of the year, with the Christmas peak, and last year’s full-year results offered the company’s first annual profit for four years, turning around a LTL 10.2m (EUR 2.95m) loss in 2010 into a LTL 736,000 (EUR 213,000) profit in 2011.

This year, Lithuania Post said its sales revenue for the first nine months has grown 4.7% compared to the same period in 2011, to LTL 136.4m (EUR 39.5m).

Earnings before tax during the nine months was 22.3% higher than the first nine months of 2011, up to LTL 4.9m (EUR 1.42m).

Lithuania Post’s chief executive, Lina Minderienė, said: “Despite the fact that we closed the nine-month period with losses, we can state that the results are continuing to improve. The overall revenue for the nine months of 2012 has increased by 4.8% compared to the first three quarters of 2011. The improving results give grounds for optimistic expectations regarding the end of the year.”

The bulk of the company’s revenue this year – about 50% of group turnover – came from the universal postal service, which saw its sales growing by 9.5% year-on-year to LTL 68.1m (EUR 19.7m).

Courier services brought in about 6.1% of the company’s revenue, and saw sales growing 9.1% compared to the same period last year, partly helped by an increase in customers sending internal mail by courier.

Lithuania Post has, since September, rebranded its courier service as LP Express, bringing its network of 24-hour parcel terminals under the same brand as it pursues growth in markets including the ecommerce segment.

State-owned Lithuania Post will see its domestic postal market fully opened up to competition from January, with competitors allowed to deliver letters under 50g in weight for the first time, complying with free trade rules under the European Union Postal Directive.

Lithuania’s ministers have recently discussed with their Latvian counterparts the prospect of merging the two countries’ postal services as one way to cope with their fully-competitive postal and parcel markets.