Royal Mail saw business “in line with expectations” during the April – June 2019 quarter and is continuing its network modernisation with improved parcel sorting at its regional mail centre in Bristol.
In a short trading statement issued ahead of its AGM yesterday, the British postal group, which is not obliged to publish Q1 figures, said that “overall, our performance in the first three months of the 2019-20 financial year has been in line with our expectations” and it reiterated its outlook for the 2019-20 financial year. Half-year results for April – September 2019 are expected to be announced on 21 November 2019.
Royal Mail Group said in May that it expects adjusted operating profit after transformation costs of between £300 million and £340 million in the year ending March 2020. The adjusted operating profit dropped 34% to £411 million in the 2018/19 financial year.
Meanwhile, Royal Mail has installed automated parcel sortation machinery in its Bristol Mail Centre to speed up the processing of parcels by replacing manual sorting. The Parcel Sorting Machine (PSM) is an intelligent system of conveyor belts and scanning technology that automatically sorts parcels for despatch to mail centres across the country.
The technology is now operational in 12 Mail Centres across the country and is due to be gradually installed in all mail centres as the company seeks to increase the proportion of machine-sorted machines from a very low 12% at present to 80% in five years’ time.
“The roll out of this new technology is transforming the way Royal Mail processes parcels which are continuing to grow in volumes,” said Simon Barker, National Operations Director, Royal Mail. “The technology will help us to speed up the passage of parcels to local mail centres. We have worked closely with our unions throughout this programme, and colleagues who work on the machine have said they prefer the quality of work compared to manual sorting.”
As part of its five-year strategic plan, the company is investing around £1.8 billion over five years in the UK’s postal service. The c £1.8 billion investment programme will focus on customer service improvements, digital initiatives, network enhancements and new ways of working to deliver more productivity and efficiency.
