22nd Jan 2015 07:36
LONDON (Alliance News) - Royal Mail PLC Thursday said it is confident it will meet its own full-year expectations, after reporting that group revenue was up just 1% in the nine months to December 28, whilst revenue was flat in both its parcels and letters businesses.
The slight revenue growth marks a deterioration from the position half way through the mail operator's financial year, when revenue growth had stood at 2%.
However, Royal Mail said it was continuing to bear down on costs, and expects underlying operating costs before transformation costs in its main business will be flat for the full year, as it had expected at the half-year stage.
It said volumes in its UK parcels business were up 3% on the year for the nine-months, better than the 2% growth it reported at the half year thanks to import parcels, while addressed letter volumes were down 3%, flat on the earlier performance.
It said parcel volumes in the key December trading month were up about 4% on the year, as it handled about 120 million parcels.
Rotal Mail's General Logistics Systems Business, a pan-European parcel delivery service, reported an 8% increase in both volumes and revenue over the nine months. However, it warned that a change to the minimum wage in Germany which came into effect at the start of 2015 could have a "significant" impact in GLS Germany's cost base.
Royal Mail expects to put out its results for the full-year to March 29 on Thursday, May 21.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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