Deutsche Post had a weak start to the year in its core business with letters and parcels in Germany. While sales in the Post division
The group justified this, among other things, with higher material costs in inflationary times and with costly preparations for the then threatening strike, which was then averted. The corona-related parcel boom was a kind of special boom for Swiss Post for a long time, which is now over.
The global group only makes a fifth of its sales in its core business. Its earnings pearls are the express services, in which customers are guaranteed a delivery time, and freight. All areas of the group combined, Deutsche Post DHL had sales of 20.9 billion euros in the first quarter of 2023, 7.4 percent less than in the same period of the previous year. The operating result (EBIT) fell by almost a quarter (24.1 percent) to around 1.6 billion euros. Net profit fell by a third to 911 million euros.
Analysts had expected worse values. Management confirmed the forecast for 2023 as a whole, in which Swiss Post expects profits to fall after the very good 2022 financial year given the downturn in the economy. In the first quarter of the year, the company developed according to plan, said the designated CEO Tobias Meyer. “Our measures are taking effect and we have continued to achieve a high level of sales and earnings.”
The Post presented its quarterly figures one day before the general meeting at which Meyer is to be appointed as the new boss on Thursday. The 47-year-old succeeds Frank Appel, who managed the group for 15 years. The 61-year-old wants to concentrate on his work as the head of the supervisory board at Deutsche Telekom.
