Hooper letter:Sale must go ahead!

[POSTMAN]

Royal Mail must deliver the goods
Royal Mail needs to modernise and take a more commercial approach to its problems.

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Sir, As the chairman of the Independent Review of the Postal Services Sector, I was interested to read about the Royal Mail Group’s increased £321 million operating profit for 2008-09 (Business, report, May 15). Some of those who are opposed to our strategic partnership recommendation for the Royal Mail involving a private sector investor or investors, see the profit as a good reason to pull back from any need to modernise the Royal Mail. This welcome operating profit in no way changes our recommendations on the need to modernise the Royal Mail.

Less notice has been taken of the fact that the Royal Mail Group lost £229 million after tax last year and had negative cash flows of £373 million. Without any policy changes of the kind we recommended and the Government has accepted, Royal Mail is likely to have negative cashflows of £400 million each year for at least the next four years.

Mail volumes fell by 5.5 per cent last year and Royal Mail now expects volumes to fall by up to 10 per cent this year, significantly worse than the forecasts in my review published just five months ago. The pension deficit has more than doubled to £6.8 billion, and the trustees’ current triennial valuation is likely to be even higher.

Whichever way you crunch the numbers, Royal Mail’s overall financial situation is untenable. The status quo is not an option. Royal Mail needs to modernise more quickly and take a more commercial approach to its problems.

Richard Hooper

Chairman of the Independent Review of the Postal Services Sector

[DGP1]

Royal Mail Group lost £229 million after tax last year

Sorry, I must've missed that

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Royal Mail Group lost £229 million after tax last year

Sorry, I must've missed that

must have been left at one of those safe drops located under bushes and bins.

[k979aaa]

The big one's leaving bash must have cost a fair few bob :lfo When they said we will have a whip round London for his leaving bash who would have thought that he meant it literally?.

[BELIAL]

"as the chairman of the INDEPENDENT review, I was forced to delay it's publication for four weeks until I could make it's conclusions chime with the required outcome. |

Sorry Bill it ain't what you expected, but Mandy made me do it. Now where will I place that luxury floating duck hotel on my newly spruced up moat