Tag: Neopost

Europe’s largest mailroom equipment firm Neopost on Tuesday raised its operating margin forecast for the third time this year as robust sales helped to lift its interim operating profit by a larger-than-expected 20 percent.
Neopost, which last month reported a 9-percent surge in first-half sales, said it now expected its operating profit margin to be above 24 percent for the current fiscal year ending January 31, 2006. The company, which shares 80 percent of the world market for postal equipment with its larger US rival Pitney Bowes had previously said it was confident it could achieve a margin of 24 percent. “2005 will be another great year for Neopost,” Chief Executive Jean-Paul Villot said in a statement.

Neopost, the European leader and number two world-wide supplier of mailing solutions, today announced consolidated sales of EUR 187.5m for the second quarter of its 2004 financial year (three months ending 31 July 2004). On a like-for-like basis and at constant exchange rates, sales expanded by 4.9%. Neopost’s aggregate sales over the first six months of 2004 totalled EUR 371.0m, a rise of 3.7% on a like-for-like basis and excluding currency effects.

Jean-Paul Villot, Neopost’s chairman and chief executive officer, made the following comments: “We are very satisfied with Neopost’s business levels for the second quarter of 2004. The rate of growth picked up in our two main markets – North America and France. In the United Kingdom, growth adjusted for the impact of postal rate changes remained solid. In Germany, the company’s performance improved. In the rest of the world, growth reached very high levels. All these factors give us reason to be confident for the rest of 2004.”