Tag: Europe

Business Post predicts its UK Mail postal arm will overtake its parcels business in the next three to five years. Chief executive Guy Buswell says that UK Mail generates 27% of the revenue for the company and this fits in line with Business Post’s growth strategy to become “the leading integrated postal operator”.

Business Post’s preliminary results for the year to March 2007 show the company now has a cash balance GBP 12m, up from a GBP 0.4 overdraft in 2006. Group revenue grew by 17% to GBP 326m, from GBP 278m in 2006. Pre-tax profit nudged up to GBP 11.5m in 2007 from GBP 11.4m, while operating profit grew to GBP 12.1m.

But revenue for the company’s parcel business slipped by 1.2% to GBP 194m, while UK Mail’s revenue soared by 124% to GBP 90.3m.

Buswell says the company has “done an awful lot within a year”, referring specifically to the take-back of 11 franchise operations into corporate ownership. “The key thing for us was to take those businesses and turn them around to at least break-even, and we’ve done that,” he says. Business Post has 16 remaining franchise operations, but these are all profitable businesses.