Hays blames difficult market as results drop to $225m
H ays Group, the UK-based business services, mail and logistics group, blamed difficult market conditions for a 11% fall in pre-tax profits to GBP147.6m ($225m).
Turnover from continuing operations were near-static at just over GBP2.43bn, while net debt reduced by GBP89m to GBP232m.
The Hays mail and express division, specialising in business to business mail delivery, saw operating profits of GBP50.2m, down by GBP1.1m. Turnover rose by 3% to GBP249.8m.
Chairman Bob Lawson said that interim licences granted by UK post regulator Postcomm had ‘attracted considerable customer interest’.
However, he added that many of the licences awarded to Hays ‘do not provide sufficient certainty for customers to change from their current arrangements.’
Full liberalisation of the UK mail market has been delayed until January next year. Hays has applied for a defined activity licence that will make the interim licences permanent, and provide ‘further opportunities’ for growth.
The Hays Logistics division saw operating profits of GBP45.7m, down 13%, hit by the launch costs of the Hays Container Services reuseable crates business in the US. Turnover was static at GBP880.2m.
The long-awaited Hays Fourth Party Solutions business is about to launch a pilot operation in the Benelux.
Chairman Bob Lawson confirmed that the 15 month search for a chief executive is ‘I hope, drawing to a close’.
The chosen candidate, a senior manager at a listed-UK services company, should be on board by November.
Although the new chief executive will have a free hand in defining strategy, Mr Lawson suggested that a break-up of the Hays group remained unlikely because ‘it is not an obvious value generator’.
