Royal Mail Records Increase In Profits

Royal Mail has reported an increase in its full-year profits.

Published today, 21 May, the company said the results in a "challenging" market are as a result of a continued focus on efficiency and cutting costs.

It reported an annual adjusted operating profit (before transformation costs) of £740m – an increase of 6% from the previous year. Revenues, meanwhile, in the year to 29 March stood at £9.4m, similar to a year earlier.

The firm said its UK parcel volumes rose by 3%, but revenues from this arm of the business increased by just 1%. Letter volumes fell by 4%, with revenue from letters falling by 1%.

In a statement, Royal Mail said its financial year trading is currently in line with expectations, but similar to previous years, its performance would be weighted in the second half, and dependent on the Christmas period.

Moya Greene, Chief Executive of Royal Mail, commented: "We have delivered operating profits in line with our expectations. Our continued focus on efficiency resulted in a better than expected UK cost performance, offsetting lower than anticipated UK parcel revenue. At the same time we have delivered a large number of innovations at pace as we transform our business."

She continued: "Our trading environment remains challenging, but we are now poised to step up the pace of change to drive efficiency, growth and innovation, while maintaining a tight focus on costs.

"At this early stage of the financial year trading is in line with our expectations, but as in previous years our performance will be weighted to the second half and will be dependent on our important Christmas period."

(JP)