Royal Mail performance “in line with expectations”

Royal Mail’s Group Chief Executive Officer Rico Back has reported that the company’s performance for the three months up to 24 June was “in line with our expectations”.

In a Trading Update sent to Post&Parcel today (7 July), Back added: “Our performance in UK letters and parcels was as anticipated and GLS continued to perform strongly. In the UK, we are making progress with the trials and initiatives under our new Pensions, Pay and Pipeline agreement. We, together with the CWU, are working with Government to enable the introduction of a Collective Defined Contribution scheme.

“Our outlook and other guidance are unchanged from that set out in our financial report for the full year ended 25 March 2018.”

Group revenue was up 2%, but UKPIL revenue dipped by 1%. It was the usual story of parcel revenue up (+6%) and letters down (-7%).

The highlights included a strong performance from GLS, with volumes up 10% and revenue up 11%. Revenue growth was achieved in almost all markets, with continued strong growth in Italy, Denmark and Spain. Poland.

Royal Mail said that it maintain an outlook for addressed letter volume declines of between 4-6% a year.

The Trading Update added: “Due to the potential impact of GDPR and, or, if business uncertainty persists, we still expect to be at the higher end of the range of decline for 2018-19 and may fall outside the range in a period. In GLS, we continue to expect a good performance in 2018-19, although margins may be impacted by continuing labour market pressures in many of its markets.

“Our outlook and other guidance are also unchanged from that set out in our financial report for the full year ended 25 March 2018.”