Business Post Annual Report 2007
UK Mail Annual Report 2006
Read MoreTag: UK Mail
Business Post Annual Report 2007 – presentation
UK pallets Annual Report 2007 – presentation
Read MoreNow UK Mail picks up the post at HSBC
HSBC has become the latest major bank to give Royal Mail the sack.
UK Mail, the postal arm of parcels courier Business Post, said today it now acts for three of the five High Street banks after HSBC joined Royal Bank of Scotland in ditching Royal Mail for the sorting for delivery of its bank statements.
Lloyds TSB had already switched to UK Mail’s arch-rival, the Dutch postal group TNT, but UK Mail today announced it had also picked up part of the Lloyds TSB contract.
Major customers such as the Department of Work and Pensions, the BBC, Vodafone, and Powergen helped UK Mail revenues soar from GBP 40m to GBP 90m in the year to the end of March, doubling profits to GBP 6.4m.
That compares with UK Mail forecasts at its launch in 2004 that within three years it would make GBP 10m on revenues of GBP 150m – about 3% of the GBP 5bn market.
Chief executive Guy Buswell said UK Mail missed the targets because VAT issues meant part of the market remained in favour of Royal Mail. Business Post’s group pre-tax profits doubled to GBP 9.8m but the dividend is pegged at 10.8p.
Read MoreBusiness Post sees FY 17 pct revenue growth
Business Post Group PLC said it expects full-year revenue growth of around 17 pct driven by continued strong performance of UK mail, and adds that its results for the year to March 31 will be in line with its previous expectations.
In a trading update, the parcel and mail delivery firm said it expects to report 18 pct revenue growth in the second half and that good progress is being made to develop Business Post into an independent integrated postal group.
The company affirmed that it will incur an exceptional cost of about 1 mln stg in the current financial year related to exit costs from the FedEx Corp contract, which is progressing satisfactorily, but this will be offset by an exceptional gain of 1 mln stg from a recent property disposal.
Preliminary results for the year to March 31 will be announced on May 23.
Read MoreUK Mail heralds VAT breakthrough
UK Mail, the postal services arm of the Business Post Group, has secured an important breakthough that it is confident will soon see the launch of a brand new “Agent for Access” service. This will enable companies in the financial services and charity sectors to benefit from a downstream access postal service which they have previously been unable to enjoy. This unprecedented move extends postal choice to a whole new market of mailers and marks an important development for the deregulated mail sector.
Many of the largest mail users are businesses that are not VAT registered – such as banks, insurance companies and charities. Any VAT they are charged on services they use, has to be taken as a cost. This is down to the fact that they can’t charge VAT themselves when supplying their customers.
“Agent for Access” is the service solution tailored specifically to suit these businesses’ needs.
Up until now VAT rules have put this sector at an automatic disadvantage. Current legislation states that all postal operators (bar Royal Mail) must apply VAT to their postal charges, leaving non-VAT businesses with limited options. For them, enjoying UK Mail’s full range of service benefits has not always come with the same overall cost savings that UK Mail offers other mailers.
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