An unattended delivery system for which Business Post now has the UK licence, called eBox, is on trial with several hundred customers.
Three sizes of eBox are available, taking deliveries or outbound shipments of up to 20kg. Business Post claims this makes the system suitable for the B2B sector as well as its HomeServe customers, such as service engineers and party planners. The company hopes by this means to reduce the problem of failed deliveries.
At the AGM today of Business Post, the UK’s leading independent express delivery company, the Chairman, Peter Kane, will state: “In the first quarter of the financial year, to 30 June 2005, revenues in Parcel Services were 9% ahead of last year, benefiting from continued strong growth in HomeServe and the higher rates of growth in the International market for cross-border shipments. Revenues in Express were ahead of last year but affected by market conditions which continue to be challenging. Accordingly, a number of initiatives have been undertaken to reduce costs. Within Specialist Distribution Services, revenue growth was 15% and profit margins continued to improve within UK Pallets. UK Mail made further progress, trading ahead of expectations, increasing its market share to around 1.25%, and successfully launching its service for unsorted mail.
Read MorePaul Carvell, Chief Executive of Business Post Group plc, has predicted that, following liberalisation of the postal market, Royal Mail will retain a profitable 80% share of the UK market. Mr Carvell said that the 20% which the Royal Mail would lose would fall into two categories. Some 15% would probably be shared by four competitors which would provide a nationwide service, and a further 5% would go to city centre specialist deliverers. Speaking today at The Logistics Event conference on the subject of “Competing for the Post”, he said that the UK domestic mail market was worth GBP5.8 billion per year, while the international market was worth a further GBP0.8 billion. Since Business Post had moved its first letter in May 2004, the company had now moved more than one hundred million letters.
Read MoreBusiness Post is planning further growth in its letters division to handle unsorted mail after announcing a steady rise in turnover across its various delivery operations. The mail delivery company yesterday reported a rise in group pre-tax profit to Pounds 20m for the year to March 31 compared with Pounds 18.7m a year earlier. Turnover increased 21 per cent to Pounds 233.3m.
Paul Carvell, chief executive, said he expected the company to meet forecasts of a 25 per cent increase in profit for the coming year. Business Post was increasing sales in part by packaging together its different services for big customers, particularly those in the electronics and computer sectors, Mr Carvell added.
Business Post announces that, in the year ended 31 March 2005, it continued to enjoy considerable success. Financial highlights include turnover increased by 21% to GBP233.3m, representing like-for-like growth of 12%, operating profit increased by 9% to GBP20.8m, and pre-tax profit by 7% to GBP20.5m. Commercial highlights include express increased its turnover by 7%, representing an increased market share of around 8% and all of the other existing businesses – International, HomeServe, Courier and UK Pallets – increased turnover by at least 15%. UK Mail, which commenced trading on 10 May 2004, had an outstanding and profitable first year. The annualised year-end volume of approximately 250m items represented a market share of approaching 1%, ahead of expectations.
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