Royal Mail sharpens costs focus to halt profit slide
The post and parcels company is examining organisational structure, management roles, investment spending and central costs
Britain’s Royal Mail is conducting a broad review of operations in its struggle to cut costs, it said on Thursday after posting a 25% drop in half-year profit. The post and parcels company, the CEO of which has come under increasing pressure since being handed the top job in June, said it is examining its organisational structure, management roles, investment spending and central costs. Royal Mail stuck to the downgraded 2018 profit and cost-savings guidance announced in a trading update in October and said it is testing new modes to deliver letters and ways of automating some deliveries in the UK to increase efficiency and cut costs. It also said it is changing prices in UK business mail and many international markets, adding that it is looking to make more of potential synergies between Royal Mail and its GLS parcels business. “If you have a trading update and have to revise your forecast downwards, you are going to pull down all your cost levers,” said CEO Rico Back. The company’...
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