Royal Mail hits all-time low as letter numbers dwindle

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Shares in Royal Mail have sunk to their lowest level since privatisation after it warned that annual profits would be lower than expected - knocking more than £1bn off its market value.

The warning was prompted by a bigger-than-expected decline in letter volumes and poor productivity performance, resulting in cost savings targets being missed.


That sent shares in the company plunging by 18% on Monday and saw brokers slash price targets for the stock overnight, resulting in a further fall of 8% on Tuesday.

The declines meant that Royal Mail's market value had fallen by £1.3bn in less than 24 hours with the share price below 360p.

It has not been as low since the government privatised the company in 2013 at an initial offer price of 330p - before the stock jumped to 475p on the first day of trading.

Royal Mail said it now expected its adjusted operating profit for the year to be between £500m and £550m, compared with £694m a year earlier.

Chief executive Rico Back said trading conditions in the UK were "challenging" with letter volumes - especially marketing mail - hit by "ongoing structural decline" as well as business uncertainty and new rules on how companies collect and process personal data.

The company said it saw a 7% fall in addressed letter volumes for the first half of the financial year, compared with an expected medium-term rate of decline of 4% to 6%.

Meanwhile, a target for ramping up productivity was partly impacted by a "challenging agenda" on working conditions and new technology following an agreement with unions.

Liberum analyst Gerald Khoo said the profit warning was "shocking in its scale and timing".

[Yamr1]

Profits down
Letters down
Postmen down
Bla bla bla
Lapsing to cover the staff that's never been replaced and packets through the roof but profits down

Time to say goodbye dividends
Time to say goodbye to coaches
Time to say goodbye to Lino's and would make them postmen no packages.
Make postman work there hours and use PDA actuals .
Stop paying overtime to advance the mail.
Chop managers and linos 10% bonus


SIMPLES

[Jpro747]

Profits down
Letters down
Postmen down
Bla bla bla
Lapsing to cover the staff that's never been replaced and packets through the roof but profits down

Time to say goodbye dividends
Time to say goodbye to coaches
Time to say goodbye to Lino's and would make them postmen no packages.
Make postman work there hours and use PDA actuals .
Stop paying overtime to advance the mail.
Chop managers and linos 10% bonus


SIMPLES

Get rid of the courier and rmtv as well.

[cobrakai]

I’m always sceptical with the volume numbers rm put out.

If we have 161k employees which is the total when you google it. There’s 12 x 161k couriers going through the flats machines/system. 1.932m flats generated by us to go on the total numbers annually.

For letters we have a weekly wage slip. If it’s only 120 thousand people a week receiving it its still 6.24m letters a year obviously included on the figures too. So the courier etc won’t be ending any time soon.

[SpacePhoenix]

I’m always sceptical with the volume numbers rm put out.

If we have 161k employees which is the total when you google it. There’s 12 x 161k flats going through flats machines/system. 1.932m flats generated by us to go on the total numbers annually.

For letters we have a weekly wage slip. If it’s only 120 thousand people a week receiving it its still 6.24m letters a year obviously included on the figures too. So the courier etc won’t be ending any time soon.

It's probably only a matter of time before RM get rid of all the flat sorting machines, there isn't the workload to justify having them based on what's in the trays of flats we get from MCs that have them

[Driver74]

Sounds like you’ve never seen a flat machine working the one at our mc is pushed to within minutes of the dispatch time most nights