Full Year results 2023-2024 IDS AND ROYAL MAIL

Full Year Results 2023 - 2024

Today we are presenting our Full Year financial results for 2023-24 to the market.

Our planned announcement was delayed as The Group's auditor, KPMG, requested additional time to complete the usual standard procedures after their internal reviews were late in the audit timetable, thereby delaying their final audit process.

Continue reading for the full details below.

International Distribution Services (IDS) results.

At a Group level we delivered a solid performance this year despite a challenging economic backdrop. IDS made an adjusted operating loss of £28 million overall; Royal Mail made a loss of £348m and GLS made a profit of £320m.

Royal Mail results

Royal Mail’s full year performance was broadly in line with expectations, putting us back on the right trajectory.

Following a £319m loss in the first half of the year, we are pleased to report that Royal Mail returned to revenue growth during the second half. Overall, Royal Mail made an adjusted operating loss of £348 million in 2023-24.

• Revenue increased 3.8% year on year to £7.7 billion

• Parcel volumes were up 6% with parcel revenue up by 3.3%

• Letter volumes were down 9% to 6.7 billion a year, but with price increases letter revenues were up by 4.4%

This shows the progress we have made:

• We have stabilised the business supported by strong cash management, cost control, refocusing our investments and successfully implementing price increases

• We have improved quality of service which has substantially increased across all our parcel products including First and Second Class mail, Tracked 24 and Tracked 48

• We have regained the vast majority of the customers we lost last year and we had the most successful peak performance in four years

• We’ve improved our productivity and efficiency across the operation including our levels of automation

• We have made good progress on our transformation; implementing the extension of the Network Window, Seasonal Variation, new attendance and sick pay arrangements and MyPerformance.

Back on the right trajectory but the hard work starts now

We have come a long way – especially in the last few months – in fact, in a difficult market we have outperformed many of our competitors in a number of areas.

Nonetheless, our journey this financial year will continue to be challenging with a lot of work to do to deliver our transformation and get us back to profitability.

The good news is we have a strong plan to get us there and with the announcement of the appointment of Emma Gilthorpe as CEO, we also have the leadership in place to drive it forward.

We recognise that colleagues will have many questions about the possible takeover bid. As discussions progress, we are limited on what we can say but please be assured that we will update people as soon as we can.

For now, let’s all remain focused on continuing to provide a great service to our customers. Everyone has a part to play.

Thank you for all you have done to this year. Let’s make next year a real success.

All the information you need

• Download and print an infographic here

• This results video is also on Content on Demand

• Find our market announcement here

Presenter: Jessica Trusler

Location: 185 Office, Farringdon

Cast: Martin Seidenberg