Royally screwed

According to this item in the Telegraph, the Royal Mail earned a profit in the first half of this fiscal year. A whopping 3-million pounds sterling! Better than last year though, when it lost 542-million pounds in the same period. Still, probably shouldn't break out the Bollinger.

Chairman Allan Leighton resigns himself to the fact that this is an abberation. Postal administrations make a fair amount of revenue from a stamp increase and the Royal Mail bumped their price by 1 pence. Moreover, the results don't include the period when an unofficial labour strike whacked the Mail hard operationally. But, this admission:

Crucially, Royal Mail has still not implemented key operational changes in most of the letters business. We did not earn this profit from efficiency gains through much needed operational changes.

pretty much says it all for how 2003 and 2004 . . . are going to look for the Royal Mail.

Rock on.

Posted by Grayson at November 13, 2003 09:24 AM