Royal Mail have released a trading update for the nine months leading up to the 27th December and it looks like they had a good Christmas, even better than last year’s strong performance.
Royal Mail’s Christmas saw them deliver 130 million parcels during December. That’s 6% more than the previous Christmas, in hard numbers 7.5 million more parcels than in 2014 which is a bigger volume increase than that reported by any competitor.
Overall parcel volumes for the 9 months are up 4%, with revenues up 1%. Parcel volume growth continued to be driven by Royal Mail account parcels, which benefited from recent new contract wins, import parcels, and Parcelforce Worldwide, which saw volumes increase by 16%. Royal Mail say that growth in these channels has more than offset the tough trading environment in consumer/SME and export parcels.
Royal Mail say that letters also had a good performance against the backdrop of structural decline. Volumes are down 3% at Q3 ahead of Royal Mail’s projected range of 4-6% annual decline.
Royal Mail also saw strong performance in Europe from their GLS division with volumes up 11% and revenues up 10% at Q3.
Good to see Royal Mail holding their own, now we just have to wait until April to see what their positive trading update translates to in annual price rises.
