Swiss Post saw its profits drop 3 per cent over the first nine months of this year due to lowerprofits and revenues from its main mail business.
The Swiss postal operator generated a group profit of CHF 721 million, down 3 per cent, fromJanuary – September 2011. Swiss Post said it achieved good results in all four markets, and theslight fall in profit was essentially due to a decline in counter transactions. Revenues fell by1.3 per cent to CHF 6,299 million, and the operating margin declined slightly to 11.4 per cent from11.7 per cent over the same period of 2010.
In the communication market, Swiss Post saw operating profits slump 33 per cent to CHF 61million and revenues fell back 4 per cent to CHF 3,479 million. Volumes of addressed domesticletters remained stable while the decline in post office counter business (payments and the mailingof letters and parcels) continued. PostMail improved its profits fractionally to CHF 136 million,Swiss Post International profits declined slightly to CHF 32 million but the Post Office lossesspiraled to CHF 112 million from the previous year’s CHF 84 million.
In the logistics market, the operating result fell by 6.4 per cent to CHF 103 million. Themain reasons for this were a 1.4 per cent fall in parcel volumes and higher employee benefitobligations. Logistics revenues were 3.9 per cent lower at CHF 1,046 million.
In the retail financial market, the operating result increased to CHF 464 million from theprevious year’s CHF 455 million. The increase was primarily due to higher customer deposits.
At the end of 2011, Swiss Post expects to post a result similar to that of last year.
