Royal Mail may lay off up to 6,000 after loss in first half

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/royal ... 1665729883

International Distribution Services PLC said Friday that its U.K. division Royal Mail swung to an adjusted operating loss for the first half of fiscal 2023, mostly due to the effect of three days of industrial action.

The company IDS, -9.44% said that Royal Mail’s adjusted operating loss for the six month period ended in September was 219 million pounds ($248.1 million) compared with an adjusted operating profit of GBP235 million for the first half of fiscal 2022. This included a GBP70 million of direct negative impacts stemming from three days of industrial action, it said.

Royal Mail might require between 5,000 to 6,000 redundancies by the end of August, 2023, IDS said.

The company said that it expects Royal Mail to post full-year adjusted operating loss–a metric which strips out exceptional and other one-off items–to be around GBP350 million. The company said this estimate includes the direct and immediate effect of eight days of industrial action which have taken place or been notified to Royal Mail, but excluding any charges for voluntary redundancy costs.

“This may increase to around a GBP450 million loss if customers move volume away for longer periods following the initial disruption,” it said.

The company said that the loss for the full year would materially increase and it might require “further operational restructuring and headcount reduction” if the Communication Workers Union proceeds with the 16 days of industrial action announced.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Royal Mail owner International Distribution Services says to cut 10,000 jobs as it responds to strike impact

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/co ... 95393.html

Royal Mail owner International Distributions Services PLC (LSE:IDS) (IDS) has outlined the significant financial impact of the spate of strikes by its workers this year as it outlined plans to cut 10,000 jobs in less than a year.

In a no-holds-barred update on trading, the company said just three days of industrial action had cost the business £70mln as warned the market it expects the Royal Mail delivery arm to make an operating loss of £219mln.

The update was issued as staff walked out for the first of a planned 19 days of industrial action in a stand-off between managers and the Communications Workers Union (CWU) over pay and conditions.

The stock market statement came with a not-so-veiled warning that IDS management could separate the ailing and strike-hit Royal Mail unit from the profitable Global Logistics Services (GLS) operation.

“The board has always maintained that there should be no cross-subsidy in the group and recognises the need to address improvements in Royal Mail's performance quickly,” investors were told. “In the event that significant change within Royal Mail is not achieved, all options remain open to protect the value and prospects of the group, including separation of the two companies.”

Eye-catching, for City analysts at least, was the cash impact of the turmoil as IDS said the outflow from Royal Mail in the first half was £274mln.

As a direct response to the company’s plight IDS said it must ‘right-size’ the current operation.

This, it added, meant it would have to remove 10,000 full-time equivalent roles by August next year, with 5,000-6,000 potential redundancies required to achieve that target.

In the update, the company said its GLS unit was trading in line with expectations and on track to deliver an operating profit of £320mln-£354mln.

[deltaforce]

Dramatic,but leavers and retirements will absorb most of that. A few years back they cut staff numbers by the tune of 20000,All done without compulsory redundancies

[pieoftheday]

Aye, don't panic!