Member Info for OliGarch

Yes, I suspect that Suella Braverman could do with an extra pair of hands when it comes to headcount reduction.....lol

How has it reached the stage where the UK Government is incapable of acting on their own immigration policies?

Does anyone have any thoughts or insight as to Simon Thompson's potential next appointment?

Newdealz, you may well be correct but only time will tell.

The one takeaway that I have from this stock is that it usually acts in a contrary manner so I have learned to "expect the unexpected" as indeed have many others....

Elphi, my take is that this stock is going to fluctuate in the 250p to 275p range until a significant announcement is made by the business or until the next trading update. If there is any news of a future dividend then I would expect this to breach the 300p area fairly quickly, however before this happens, the business needs a period of stability in order to regain it's composure. A long term hold for me now.

"Analysts at the brokerage said there is still time to mitigate the risk of making the wrong appointment by hiring a CEO with an appropriate record in delivering restructuring of a unionised business."

I think that this is key and it will be interesting to see who RM can attract.

The other concerning thing that needs addressing is "Royal Mail has not grown revenue by more than 1% in any year since privatisation.”

The article states....."It has regularly struggled to break even.......in the year to 30 June 2021 - the last for which results are available at Companies House - LGH reported a pre-tax profit of £17.6m, against a loss of more than £35m the year before".

Given that their UK employee cost per employee is almost certainly a lot lower than Royal Mail, how are they not making more profit?

Good advice Maximas.

In days gone by, RM were very cautious about surcharging slightly overweight or oversized items unless it was obvious as we didn't want to upset the customer and lose business. Indeed, the Snapfish items that we process through our sorting machines are often not "machinable" due to their stiffness however we still offer a decent discount and have to alter the machine settings to cope albeit at the cost of reducing the lifespan of some machine components such as belts and requiring extra maintenance.

Newdealz, is it possible that your item could have "changed shape" during it's journey? By that, I mean if the sides of the item have become flattened and bulged as a result of being squashed then it could fall into the next size category? I occasionally post items that I have sold online and I use our local post office (as our mail centre callers office doesn't issue printed receipts) but if I suspect that there could be cause for discrepancy then I ask the shopkeeper to put the item back on the scales with the label attached and take a photo with my phone.

Perhaps you could ask the recipient to take a photo and send it to you when it arrives?

Newdealz, unfortunately the copy and paste was too many characters. Fortunately Maximas managed to get more text in.

The statement was released about ten minutes earlier on WhatsApp and my immediate thoughts were that this hasn't fully gone away despite a positive mandate from the members.

Personally, I don't have any skin in the game regarding the union as I will be officially retired before the September pay date for the 6% although I might just manage to scoop up the £1,400...... kerching.......

APPOINTMENT OF NEW GROUP CEO INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTIONS SERVICES

 

Dear Colleagues, 

 

After a significant period where the company has been without leadership and direction, the appointment of new Group CEO Martin Seidenberg is cautiously welcomed. 

 

We also await with interest, the forthcoming appointment of the Royal Mail CEO. 

 

The truth is though, this is not a time for words. It is a moment for actions. If we do not see a complete shift from the attitudes and approach of the current senior management team then this company has no future. 

 

We are now well beyond the fall out from an industrial dispute. We are into the territory where the strategy of the company’s current leadership is destroying quality of service and the universal service obligation, has completely eroded the trust of the workforce and put Royal Mail in the most serious position in it’s 500 year history.

 

CWU members overwhelmingly endorsed the Business Recovery, Transformation and Growth agreement little over a week ago. They are seeing and feeling no change at local level. We have seen breaches of the agreement both material and in spirit. This is unprecedented so early into an agreement. Whilst our members want to move on from the dispute, senior management cannot shake off their union busting mentality. The new CEO has to oversee a significant change in both personnel and approach. 

 

We are absolutely committed to working with the new CEOs and improving industrial relations but the union must also focus on our own actions. We cannot just sit back hoping for better. 

Our strategy will be built upon the following key principles:

1. Immediate re-engagement with our reps and members in the workplace.

2. How we counter and challenge Royal Mail senior managements approach.

3. Putting forward CWU solutions to turn around the fortunes of the company.

Yesterday, we held a senior field officials briefing and on Tuesday we have a national briefing which will bring together representatives from every branch in the UK. 

 

We are putting in place plans to brief all of our local representatives. 

 

We are going to organise, recruit and drive the positive change we want to see in every workplace. 

 

Our Postal Executive and Divisional Reps will oversee the restoration of the IR Framework alongside the development of our own agenda. We will not be sitting back and waiting for Royal Mail to table their plans. We will be on the front foot and demanding things such as more innovative attendance patterns.

 

Once we have met all of our representatives we will host an open session with our members where you will be able to input into this strategy but crucially we will give you a role too. We need reps in every office. We need union committees in every office. We need CWU advocates in every office and we need all new entrants to join the union.Every single one of us has a role to play in winning in the workplace. 

 

Your

Do you have a theory behind the 2.7% in 2020/21 and 3.6% in 2021/22? If the pandemic/lockdown theory is correct then the data should have suggested a negative figure for 2020/21 as the first lockdown was 17th of March 2020 and continued throughout the year? The published figures don't make sense in that respect plus first time delivery was at an all-time high and fuel prices were at an all-time low?

AngerSharkz, you don't need to rephrase the statement as the words are the words. It also doesn't alter the fact that the current USO is the USO.

Neither of us can do anything about it or alter it. I'm just trying to understand the published facts.

AngerSharkz, an interesting document and I will give it a full read tomorrow. I could only find documents issued by OFCOM or Parliament.

Section 1.4 is interesting in that the profit margins dropped from 4.4% in 2017/18 to a low of 0..4% in 2019/20 but have increased from 2.7% in 2020/21and again to 3.6% in 2021/22. The publication of this upward trajectory has certainly not done the business any favours in terms of reducing the USO and should the trend continue would surpass 5% by 2023/24.

AngerSharkz, no conspiracy on my part. I just wanted to get to the bottom of the 20@3 Parliamentary report and their conclusions that

22. Given the fundamental importance of the USO, we were concerned to note that Royal Mail were unable to provide a regional breakdown of the cost of the Universal Service Obligation (USO). In addition, given the responsibility of Ofcom to protect the USO, we were surprised to learn that there is no consensus between Royal Mail and Ofcom over what constitutes the cost, revenues and profits of the USO. We recommend that both Royal Mail and Ofcom should, as a matter of urgency, agree a set of financial metrics against which the costs should be measured. If necessary, this should be carried out by the National Audit Office (NAO) or a mutually-agreed body of experts.

23. We recommend that Royal Mail—the Designated Universal Service Provider—using these figures, provides a geographical analysis of where the Universal Service is profitable and where it is not. Such detailed analysis and financial monitoring of the Universal Service would provide the evidence to assess the long-term sustainability of the Universal Service. This breakdown of costs should be included in Royal Mail's Audited Regulatory Accounts. If Royal Mail declines to provide these figures, we recommend that the Government should consider extending the remit of Ofcom, to enable Ofcom to enforce this requirement.

If you have fresh data that can conclusively provide a breakdown of losses that are verified and agreed by both RM and OFCOM then it would certainly be an interesting read.

AngerSharkz, do you have a link to the postal service agreement made during privatisation as I can only find the document that was issued prior to privatisation? It would be interesting to see how they differ and what changed between 2013 and 2014 and to what metrics and calculations were agreed and used between RM and OFCOM?

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmbis/769/76906.htm

AngerSharkz, I have looked on the internet and the viability of the USO has been a contentious issue for many years. In the reports that I have read, the business always points to the USO as a loss making exercise as would be expected however it's always been difficult to quantify.

I realise that it's ten years old but a report from 2013/14 saw varying cost figures for maintaining the USO of £7.2bn from the business but only £2.7bn from OFCOM (even though the operating profit on the universal service was £556 after transformation costs). It looks as though the business incorporates it's basic running costs into the USO figure as opposed to sharing the costs with non USO items in order to make the figures look bleak?

I'm sure that there are socioeconomic factors that are also taken into account as well, especially where SMEs are concerned. The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies are among the most vociferous defenders of the USO due to the higher percentage of rural areas and this has to be taken into consideration.

At the end of the day, it may be costing me/us a lot of money however I was fully aware of the situation when I purchased my shares and I am perfectly fine with the situation. I guess that if you don't like the Ts&Cs then you shouldn't be purchasing the product/shares?

AngerSharkz, I'm all for making money and currently my investment is up by around +£10k in a matter of weeks so definitely not bitter.....lol

My personal view is that the powers that be have deemed the current USO to be acceptable and I am in agreement even if costs me a little. If their viewpoint changes then so be it and I will also accept their decision but until then......

AngerSharkz, I'm certainly not bitter with IDS and intend to take full advantage of the current situation regarding the SP rise as it's increasing 40% of my NRA60 lump sum on an almost daily basis. The last twelve months have been very good to me work wise and the wind down to retirement has been quite enjoyable.

I am however a little disappointed that someone would delete their entire posting history and start afresh.

AngerSharkz, "paying shareholders is standard for a FTSE company".

Isn't paying the workforce standard practice as well?

I know that you will retort with "well if there's no money then they can't pay the workforce" however Simon seems to have found almost half a billion over three years. That's a pretty big sofa.....lol

TheMoneyShark, "ancient history"....lol

There used to be a poster on here last year who said that the stock market isn't interested in what's gone before (ancient history) as it only looks to the future....

Unfortunately, I can't go back to look at the post because it's been deleted.....lol