5th Apr 2005 07:01
Business Post Group PLC05 April 2005 BUSINESS POST GROUP PLC Close Period Trading Update Business Post, the UK's leading independent express delivery company, proposesto announce its preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2005 on Tuesday17 May 2005 and today issues the following trading update. Parcel Services Express The market for express deliveries has been challenging throughout the year.Against this background, Express has made good progress, and is expected toincrease turnover for the year ended 31 March 2005 by nearly 6% (notwithstandingthree fewer working days than in the previous year) representing a furtherincrease in market share. International The market for cross-border shipments continues to grow at roughly twice therate of domestic and, with the introduction of new services and strong newbusiness growth, International is expected to increase its turnover byapproximately 16% in the year ended 31 March 2005. HomeServe The Group's focus on the rapidly expanding home delivery market has continued toyield success, and HomeServe is expected to increase turnover by approximately50% for the year overall. Network Services Network Services is responsible for providing high quality collection anddelivery services to the business units within Parcel Services and UK Mailthrough a network of owned and franchised sites. In H2, in the run up to the Christmas peak period, Network Services incurredadditional costs to ensure high quality service levels. However, more recentlyunit cost performance has returned to normal levels while maintaining highservice quality. UK Pallets UK Pallets, acquired in July 2003, is the Group's national palletised goodsdelivery service, accounting in H1 for 10% of Group turnover. Market conditions in the pallet network sector have been disappointingthroughout the year, and further depressed by the poor trading experienced inthe retail sector and parts of the building sector over Christmas andsubsequently. The Board believes that UK Pallets has maintained its market sharethroughout this period, but turnover growth reduced from 18% in H1 to 14% in H2.The shortfall in sales growth and the additional cost of a hub extension fromSeptember 2004 have impacted on profits and, as a result, the full year profitcontribution from UK Pallets will be around £0.8m. We expect an improvedperformance in the year to 31 March 2006. Courier Courier has continued to make good progress, in terms of both turnover growthand profitability, throughout H2. Turnover for the full year is expected toincrease by 15% overall. UK Mail UK Mail, which commenced trading in May 2004, continues to make excellentprogress. Market penetration has been achieved at a faster rate than expected,and UK Mail is currently handling an annualised 250 million items, approaching1% of the market. Customers are of a much higher average size than originallyenvisaged and cover a broad range of sectors, the recent contract with RoyalBank of Scotland Group representing an encouraging entry into the VAT exemptmarket place. Because of the faster rate of progress, UK Mail is now expected tobreak even for the year overall, rather than incur a small loss. Overall and outlook Reflecting all the above, Business Post expects its turnover for the year ended31 March 2005 to be in line with expectations but pre-tax profit (beforegoodwill amortisation) to be slightly below consensus market expectations ofapproximately £21.5m. The Board's overall outlook for the year ending 31 March 2006 remains unchanged. Enquiries: Business Post Group plcPaul Carvell (Chief Executive) 0121-335 1111Peter Fitzwilliam (Finance Director) 01753-706 070 Bankside Consultants LimitedCharles Ponsonby 020-7444 4166 Conference Call: Paul Carvell and Peter Fitzwilliam will conduct a conference call for analystsand investors at 09.00 today, Tuesday 5 April 2005, which can be accessed bydialling 020-7162 0183, citing pass code 654542 and quoting Business Post Group.The call will be recorded and available for seven days on 020-7031 4064 via passcode 654542 or through the Business Post website. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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