Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Mike, you are absolutely correct regarding the privatisation of the UK's utilities. Selling off our water companies has been nothing short of a disaster because they know that if they make a pigs ear of things then the UK taxpayer will be forced to bail them out so it's a win/win. The reality for RM is similar and the top brass know that they can force change from OFCOM or the UK Government just by making the service worse.
Scamp, let's get one thing clear. RM isn't going to be renationalised, the genie has been out of the bottle for too long and it's not going back. I would also suggest that reducing the USO is going to be a thorny issue for too many politicians, especially if they have only just arrived in post following the next GE. I suspect what will happen is that OFCOM will exercise it's powers to alter the delivery timescales for letters by making 2C letters a five day service instead of three. This will not require any politicians having to vote and nobody will be the bad person. I have no idea how much would be gained in cost savings or how many jobs would potentially be lost should this happen but it would certainly be nowhere near as harsh as a three day USO.
All in my opinion of course......
Derek, at those prices I would imagine that they are offering the same service as Royal Mail Sameday?
I used the RM Sameday service frequently as an employee and quite often I would be asked by my line manager to try to avoid using them due to their eye watering prices impacting on our non staff budget.
JB, I believe that RM were looking into a superhub in the south of England before the pandemic, possibly just outside the M25 north of London however land prices attract a premium and it didn't happen, then the pandemic hit and brought proceedings to a halt. As it happens, it was probably for the best as the south is served very well along the M4, M25 and M23 corridors with Medway, Gatwick, Swindon and Bristol plus they also have Southampton. All are big mail centres with parcels automation which I am assured currently have ample capacity to cope with current volume.
FRANKFURT/LONDON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Private equity group Advent International is considering options, including a potential sale, for its British parcel delivery service Evri, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Advent holds a 75% stake in Evri and is working with advisers on its options for the business, which could be valued at around 2 billion pounds ($2.55 billion) including debt, one of the people, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.
German mail order company Otto Group holds 25% of the business formerly known as Hermes UK. Evri generated sales revenue of 1.4 billion pounds in its 2023 financial year, unchanged from the previous year, its latest results, opens new tab show. https://www.evri.com/annual-reports
In recent months, Evri has seen an uptick in performance that will show in its next set of results, adding momentum for a potential sale, the person said.
Advent and Otto Group declined to comment. Evri did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Evri started as Grattan Mail Order in 1974 in Bradford, Yorkshire, with staff and their families delivering parcels and invoices to customers.
The company was rebranded as Hermes before Advent took a majority stake in the UK business in 2020, as well as a 25% stake in Hermes Germany from Otto Group. Hermes UK became, opens new tab Evri under Advent's ownership in 2022.
There was an article on Sky News yesterday which seemed to inferior that there was also something afoot with Evri?
"Yodel is among the biggest parcel couriers in the UK, competing with Royal Mail, Evri and Amazon Logistics.
Evri, which is owned by the private equity group, is also beginning the process of exploring a sale, according to a Reuters report last week".
https://news.sky.com/story/barclay-family-scrambles-to-find-buyer-for-parcel-delivery-group-yodel-13065965
Redceo, if they were red and green candles then that would almost certainly be Newdealz......
I like this stock and the SP. It drifts upwards on the whim of positive news despite nothing being agreed so lets hope for an upward trend over the next ninety days.
The problem is that it also has a nasty habit of crashing back down again on the hint of negative news so lets hope that the media are kind and only report positive things until the end of April although even Sunak couldn't pour cold water on it this week.
AngerSharkz, bearing in mind that RM are still working to the current USO, why would RM want to make mass redundancies when most postcode areas are running with a shortage of staff and are unable deliver to the current specification? In fact the current RM business model appears to be one of the options in the OFCOM document which is deliveries every other day.
So you don't believe that the point of reducing the USO is to reduce headcount? Really? If the USO goes from six days down to three days then technically that's a 50% labour cost saving as one postie could cover two rounds a week. Given that RM are probably 10% understaffed to optimal then a saving of around 40% of staff could be let go by various means but let's say 30% to be on the safe side. There are currently around 90,000 delivery postie's so 30% would be 27,000. The average wage without overtime is around £25k but the cost to business is around 20% extra as there are pension contributions (12%) and other associated costs such as training, uniform etc to be taken into account so let's say £30k cost to business. 27,000 staff at £30k is £820m which is the potential cost savings to be made.
The impact on parcels? Given that Evri are cheaper in virtually every department then Seidenberg needs to do some rethinking on the costings. In fact, an Evri tracked small parcel up to 1kg with compensation and two to three working days delivery is £2.94. A Royal Mail signed for 2nd class letter up to 250g with compensation and two to three working days delivery is £3.80.
Pauly is correct but because he (assuming Pauly identifies as male) is a RM employee then you reject his posts as one of a disgruntled postal worker. He doesn't post often but if you take a quick look back at his last ten posts then you will see that he has called the whole saga of the dispute correctly.
Anyway, I will expect the usual drivel from you just after 8am tomorrow when you get home from your night shift.
"There are some people that have been holders here since privatisation, a few years mean Jack s*it in the grand scheme of things"......I suspect that the long term holders, which included myself from October 2013 to June 2021, were in it for the dividend payments although I'm sure that there are holders on this forum that would prefer sooner to later, especially the shorter term holders?
"Royal Mail has already shown signs of recovery. Investors need Royal Mail just to break even and the group could well be near £400m-£500m net profit company given the strength of GLS……..you know that equals don’t you OliGarch????"......yes, it means that GLS will be paying me some nice fat dividends.....anyhoo, nice to see the SP on the way up.
Remember, all the these things that are touted in the media are just "promises" at the moment and until the documents are signed, sealed and delivered then that's all they are but it's good to see the SP head south on a promise......
Have you ever been "on a promise" AngerSharkz? Remember your hands don't count....it has to be someone else......
Schwee, "does anybody seriously believe that the idiots that run this country have the guts to implement even one of these proposals?"
I have to agree with you here. Don't forget this is broadly the same bunch of MPs that stalled on Brexit and have delayed the Rwanda plan on countless occasions. They can't even enact laws that they have passed themselves so I'm not filled with optimism.
Hounddog, I posted something similar to the last paragraph in your last post, yesterday. This is the edited response from AngerSharkz with expletives removed. The good news is that the long term holders don't appear to be bothered by timescales here, which is strange as the UK operation is losing money on the iso every day that changes haven't been made?
"I’ll simplify. The report will come out tomorrow. It will say how utterly dead the USO is. There will be 90 days of political posturing and then changes will be made……end of this year? Next year? Two years?
The bottom line is change IS coming. End of story. In spite of all your pitiful whining you’re wrong. Again".
404x, I have been looking at this forum for the last couple of days but you should take a look at the IDS forum. Whoever it is has some serious issues.
From the WOSG forum this afternoon.....
"Ade - Why are you engaging with this tool? Just ignore him and let him rant like the weirdo he is. There's a filter there for a reason. Life's too short to waste on people like that".
Looks like it's the correct answer.....