DHL Express successfully achieved a financial turnaround at its formerly loss-making Irishbusiness last year after stopping domestic parcel deliveries and downsizing by laying off nearly
half of the staff.DHL Express Ireland made a small operating profit of €0.4 million in 2010 compared to a large€25.2 million loss in 2009, Irish newspapers reported, citing the company’s directors report forlast year. The 2009 loss had included €16.5 million in redundancy payments for 300 staff, accordingto the Irish Times. The number of employees dropped to 347 last year from 603 the year before. Thecompany ended 2010 with a pre-tax loss of €102,000 due to high interest payments and financialexpenses.
The company’s revenue declined by 29% to €75 million last year from €106.1 million in 2009,largely due to the termination of the ‘Domestic Deferred’ parcel service within Ireland which hadgenerated large losses. In 2009, DHL Express shut down seven regional depots and cut staff numbersat its offices and warehouses in Dublin, Limerick and Cork. The business now focuses oninternational and domestic express deliveries.
According to the directors’ report, DHL Express Ireland is “satisfied that the businessrestructuring previously undertaken has brought about the required repositioning which will enablethe company to take advantage of any improvement in the economic situation as and when it mayoccur”. There was “some improvement” in core international revenues and volumes in the first fewmonths of this year, it noted.
A DHL Express spokeswoman confirmed to CEP-Research that the Ireland figures were correct.
In July last year DHL Express launched a new flight from Dublin to the USA to reduce transittimes and cover 90% of all US business addresses on a next-day basis from Ireland.
