Royal Mail performance in “significant” improvement

Parent group International Distribution Services, now delisted from the Stock Exchange and under foreign ownership, has announced its full year results for the year ending 30 March. 

Sales at Royal Mail were up 7% at £8.2bn. Excluding voluntary redundancy costs, the business made an adjusted operating profit of £12m compared to the prior year’s massive £336m loss.

If the redundancy costs were included, Royal Mail made an adjusted operating loss of £8m.

Overseas parcels wing GLS posted an adjusted operating profit down 10.6% at £286m on sales that nudged up by 1.3% to £4.93bn.

Overall group revenue was up 4.8% at £13.1bn, with an adjusted operating profit of £278m (2024 loss: £28m).

Royal Mail’s parcel volumes grew by 6% in 2024-25, while addressed letters (excluding election mail) declined by 4% to 6.33bn items.

Group CEO Martin Seidenberg said it had been “a year of change for IDS”.

“Thanks to the hard work of our people and our investment in transformation, Royal Mail returned to profit for the first time in three years, marking an important milestone in the company’s turnaround,” he stated.

“With IDS’s acquisition by EP Group complete and Universal Service reform decided now is the time for us to drive the business forward and capitalise on our momentum.”

Royal Mail has also started the detailed work ahead of implementation of Universal Service reform, “using the learnings from pilots”.

The group also noted that thanks to a raft of operational changes, “quality of service continued to improve” and said that providing customers with a high-quality service “remains a top priority”.