Almost 50% of bpost’s revenue is generated by Parcels & Logistics.
bpost released its first quarter 2019 results last week – parcel BeNe (Belgium-Netherlands) growth was up 16.9% while total operating income was down -1.8% driven by vigorous mail volume decline.
Koen Van Gerven, CEO, commented: “Thanks to the efforts of all our teams, both in Belgium and in the other countries where we operate, our first quarter 2019 group results are overall in line with expectations laid down in our full year guidance. We continued to make good progress on our transformation towards a reference e-commerce logistics operator, with nearly half of our revenues being generated by Parcels & Logistics.
Parcels volume and revenue development in our Belgium-Netherlands home region continued to be strong. Parcels & Logistics North America was impacted, as anticipated, by the fallout of Radial’s 2018 client churn and repricing despite stringent cost control. Mail & Retail’s volume decline was more pronounced than anticipated, and was only partly compensated by price increases. These developments emphasise the importance of the modified distribution model to align rapidly changing consumer needs with operational challenges. With the first quarter in line with expectations, I can reconfirm that we are on track to realise our full year guidance of normalised EBIT above EUR 300 million and I thank all bpost’s employees for their hard work.”
First quarter highlights
Group operating income at EUR 906.8 million, down -1.1% and group normalised EBIT at EUR 95.8 million, representing an EBIT margin of 10.6%.
Mail & Retail
Total operating income at € 527.5 million (-1.8%) driven by vigorous mail volume decline
Underlying mail volume decline at -9.2% mainly driven by Transactional and Press
Normalised EBIT at EUR 92.6 million (17.6% EBIT margin) mainly impacted by mail volume decline and wage drift
Parcels & Logistics Europe & Asia
Total operating income at € 196.8 million (+8.0%) driven by Parcel BeNe up 11.1%
Parcel BeNe volume growth at +16.9% driven by e-commerce
Normalised EBIT at EUR 18.0 million (9.1% EBIT margin): solid margin improvement with volume growth only partly offset by higher costs
Parcels & Logistics North America
As anticipated, total operating income at € 228.5 million (-5.2%) mainly impacted by Radial customer churn and repricing
Normalised EBIT at EUR -7.8 million (-3.4% EBIT margin) mainly impacted by client churn & repricing in line with expectations
