Royal Mail parcel revenues overtake letters for first time

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54998908

Royal Mail has said revenue from parcel deliveries has surpassed letters for the first time, fuelled by a surge in online shopping during the pandemic.

The postal group said turnover from parcels now makes up 60% of its total revenue, which rose by nearly 10% in the first half of its financial year.

But it was not enough to stop a sharp drop in profits, due to a number of costs including extra staff to sort the increased parcel volume by hand.

Pre-tax profit fell 90.2% to £17m.

During the six months to 27 September, Royal Mail's increased costs included £85m related to Covid-19 as well as £147m on voluntary redundancies.

While revenue from letters dropped by 20.5%, parcel rose by 33.2%.

Royal Mail said that on its busiest day it processed 2.5 million tracked parcels while its international parcels business, GLS, also saw increased volumes, "in particular as China emerged from Covid-19 restrictions and economic activity increased early in the period".

However, it added that growth in international volumes "weakened" as the first half progressed, "impacted by reduced global air capacity" and other increased costs.

Looking ahead, it said it was difficult to give an outlook for its second half, "given the uncertainty surrounding the development of the pandemic in the remainder of the year and possible recessionary impacts across our business, which could have a significant influence on parcel volumes".

In the meantime, it said it was preparing for the peak Christmas period and is recruiting around 33,000 additional flexible workers to handle the expected demand.

[koolishy67]

Nearly sold my shares@1.25 on somone stupid advice he sold his

[RobertT]

Nearly sold my shares@1.25 on somone stupid advice he sold his

I nearly bought some at £1.20.
At the time of writing this they're £3.02, which would have represented a 151% increase on my money.

[twoloops]

Well we are not going to get many parcels in a bag, maybe it's time we all moved to vans & dumped the walks?

[spen]

Looking ahead, it said it was difficult to give an outlook for its second half, "
Let me assure you youl be quids in, second half mail back to normal and parcels galore,,, even after Xmas the January sales and majority of shopping will all be online