UK Mail today reported solid revenue growth in its financial year to 31 March 2012, driven byrobust increases in mail revenues and a small increase in parcel turnover, while group profits
declined due to lower yields, restructuring costs, and the impact of one less workingday.Group revenues rose by 8.4% to £429 million, with mail revenues up 14.5% to £208.1 million andparcels revenues growing by 3.2% to £172.1 million. Group profit before tax and exceptional itemsdropped by 6.2% to £15.1m. After removing exceptional items of £2.2m relating to restructuringcosts, group profit before tax was £12.9 million, down 19.8% year on year.
Guy Buswell, Chief Executive Officer of UK Mail, commented: “These results show UK Mail’sresilience during a year of tough trading conditions, in markets that are undergoing fundamentalchange. We have made progress in developing our business, investing in our network, and drivingdown cost. We have achieved very high service levels even during peak times when we havehandled record volumes, and the new products we have brought to market – such as ipostparcels.comand imail – are going well.”
Buswell said trading in the initial weeks of the new financial year has been in line with thecompany’s expectations. “We fully expect the economic backdrop to remain tough in 2012 and thepricing environment to stay highly competitive,” he added. “We are planning accordingly, withtight control of our costs continuing to be a key focus.
“We have leading and differentiated positions in our markets, a highly competitive businessmodel, and a strong balance sheet which gives us strategic flexibility. We are thereforeconfident that we will come through this period of significant change in our industry not just as asurvivor, but as one of the strongest players in the markets in which we operate.”
