Our addressed letter volumes declined by 3%; total letter revenue by 2%.
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Adjusted profit before tax decreased to 538 million pounds from 569 million pounds, a year ago.
Total group revenue was £9.25 billion, compared to £9.33bn the year before.
In the United Kingdom, revenue fell 1% to £7.6 billion as letter volumes fell by 3%.
Adjusted operating profits before transformation costs were up 5% to £742m.
Roger Morris, Head of Royal Mail Parcels, spoke about the company’s new products ad technology investments at this morning opening session of the Mail & Express Delivery Show (MEDS), which is taking place in London today.
The cost of modernising and restructuring its United Kingdom operation has been higher than expected in the face of high competition in the domestic postal and parcel markets.
Parcels volume grew 3.0% in the year, helped by continued growth in import parcels, new account contract wins, and a strong performance for the Parcelforce Worldwide business. Although the move will happen on July 11, Royal Mail insist that there will be no impact on deliveries and also that there will be no job losses as a result of the move.
“There remains a divergence of opinion amongst analysts regarding the prospects for the group”.
Revenue rose 1 per cent to £9.2bn as chief executive Moya Greene hailed a “resilient performance”.
The company said its Outlook for United Kingdom letter and parcel market trends remained unchanged.
“The full year results were c.2% ahead of consensus at the profit before tax level, but in line with our forecasts”, the broker’s analyst Gerald Khoo said, as quoted by Citywire.
“Other” activities contributed £183m more to operating profit than previous year at constant currency, led by increased revenues in the French interconnector business due in part to higher price arbitrage between the United Kingdom and mainland Europe.
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Transformation costs included 3,500 voluntary redundancies, which cost the business £117m in the year. However, we will need to meet the challenges caused by slowing economic growth, the current low inflationary environment, and continuing developments in the highly competitive markets in which we operate.
