Austrian Post has unveiled plans to cut jobs, upgrade services and restructure its domestic parcelsbusiness after losing all major B2C customers to Hermes Logistik. But it improved profits over the
first nine months of the year, thanks partly to results at German express subsidiary trans-o-flex.In a package of wide-ranging measures presented to the supervisory board yesterday, thepostal group said it would “adapt” parcel sorting and network capacity to the new situation. Itwill seek synergies with the mail business by using postal staff to deliver parcels to homeaddresses in rural areas, and cut back usage of transport capacity. At the same time, Austrian Postaims to improve services by offering new options such as re-routing of parcels, home pick-ups ornext-day express delivery.
But Austrian Post did not disclose how many of the 2,000 existing jobs in parcel deliveriesare at risk. From January, it will lose about 15 million of its 45 million annual parcels to Hermeswhich has acquired the business of the leading mail-order companies Otto, Universal, Quelle andNeckermann.
In addition, the postal group, which sold its stake in DPD Austria in order to launch its ownB2B parcels service earlier this year, said it would speed up its B2B expansion with the aim ofquadrupling its 5% market share to 20% within the next three years. In this segment, it would offerevening and late pick-ups, flexible routing and special services such as temperature-controlledtransport based on the expertise of German subsidiary trans-o-flex.
Chairman Anton Wais said Austrian Post needed to implement the planned measures as quickly aspossible, and detailed proposals would be made at the supervisory board meeting in mid-December.Supervisory board chairman Peter Michaelis said the board supported the management’s plans, and, inresponse to speculation, stressed that the present management board would remain in place.
In its nine-month figures released today, Austrian Post announced that group revenues rose31.2% to EUR 1,667.3 million and EBIT improved 26.2% to EUR 118.3 million. The initial inclusion oftrans-o-flex contributed about EUR 360 million to revenues, leaving the Parcel & Logisticsdivision’s revenues up by 225% to EUR 531.6 million. The division improved its EBIT by 31.1% to EUR20.8 million.
In Q3 2007, Austrian Post achieved an EBIT of EUR 33.3m, up from EUR 27.4m in Q3 2006. Totalrevenues improved by 34.4% to EUR 550.4 million, with Parcel & Logistics revenues up 234.5% toEUR 174.4 million.
