La Poste make profit in 2002 thanks to GeoPost

France’s state-owned mail service La Poste made a profit in 2002 but only thanks to its courier and logistics services subsidiary GeoPost

As the new president of the La Poste Group, Jean-Paul Bailly, said when the results for 2002 were presented, the only reason that La Poste did not make a loss was because its courier and logistics arm GeoPost and the latter’s branches in France, Germany and the United Kingdom did especially well. However he was forced to concede that La Poste had generally underperformed and not met its own targets.

Profit slumps

Group sales were up only by a modest 1.8% to EUR 17.3 billion, while the operating profit was down a swingeing 55% to EUR 100 million. The biggest losses were recorded in the core letter post business, for the indifferent state of the economy meant fewer mailshots and less business correspondence. Newsprint, too, was down. Together these factors (including lower letter post volumes because of the increasing number of email communications and the provision of EUR 116 million for the early retirement of surplus staff) pushed the net result of La Poste’s core business into the red by EUR 30 million, compared with a handsome EUR 185 million profit in 2001.

The day (or year) was only saved for the La Poste Group by a strong performance by its courier and logistics operations, yielding a net profit of EUR 34 million. These operations are combined under the GeoPost brand, which, claims
the latter, is No.3 in Europe among comparable providers in this market.

Geopost’s stable

One of Geopost’s operations is the courier Chronopost International, which is focused on markets in France and in southern Europe. Other businesses in the GeoPost stable include the B2B specialist TAT Express, the logistics provider Geopost Logistics and the parcel courier Geopost GmbH – the German network of DPD (Deutscher Paketdienst) — and the British Geopost UK with its Parceline and Interlink brands.

Good news from GeoPost

In 2002, GeoPost reported sales up by 5.5% from EUR 1.977 billion to EUR 2,085 billion. EUR 67 million of the improvement was attributed to increased volumes and EUR 46 millions to higher tariffs, while EUR 4 million was lost due to unfavourable exchange rates. In total, GeoPost could look back on a gross profit of EUR 117 million and an operating profit of EUR 58 million, compared with a group operating loss in the previous year (2001) of EUR 22 million.

Especially thanks to the activities of GeoPost, the president of La Poste can now claim that the group already generates 57.5% of its sales <>. Bailly’s objective for 2003 is to at least return the core letter post business to breakeven point.