Regulation In March 2018 Ofcom announced that its costs would be recovered from the industry on a pro rata basis using a relevant turnover basis. As the provider of the final mile delivery Royal Mail retain the bulk of postage revenue and therefore the largest share of Ofcom costs. However DSA companies with relevant turnover in excess of £5m are required to contribute and Whistl will be required to contribute. Ofcom have however decided to exclude DSA revenue when looking at Consumer Advocacy Body costs and these will be borne by those end to end postal operators with relevant turnover of more than £10m and parcel operators with relevant turnover of more than £350m. Whistl are therefore not expected to be impacted by CAB costs recovery proposals. Board changes Pim Berendsen has decided to stand down from the Board of Management following his appointment as CFO of PostNL NV. On behalf of the Board, I wish Pim much success in his new role and would like to thank him for the invaluable contribution he has made at Whistl. We will continue to have access to PostNL expertise as required. Outlook Our core Downstream Access Mail business remains stable and out-performs the market. At the end of the year we secured significant new customer wins including Adare, Age Concern and John Lewis Partnership and we believe we will see volume growth in 2018 in our Mail business as a result of these and other wins. In 2017 we experienced increased pricing competition but continued investment in the business including depot reorganisation and sorting machinery, paid our first dividend to shareholders and have managed to grow our cash position by £14.2m to £37.1m. The programme of e¤ciency and optimisation of the network started in 2017 and will continue in 2018. Together with our growth strategies we anticipate a good increase in profitability during the year. We expect our International Inbound and Outbound, Parcels and Doordrop Media businesses to continue to grow and we will begin to see the benefits of the integration of Whistl Fulfilment into the Group. We expect to support our growth plan with further acquisitions in the first half of the year.
We have committed to continued investment in the business following our management buyout and this year we increased capital investment by 7.3% in the business to ensure we can deliver operational e¤ciency and savings for our clients. Our major investment in 2017 was the opening of our new Bolton super depot located on the Logistics North development by Junction 4 of the M61. We consolidated operations in Leeds and Warrington onto the one site that has 33% greater capacity for future expansion. The move to Bolton has significantly improved the operational e¤ciency of Whistl and the new depot also provides an excellent working environment for our colleagues as well as providing high quality and e¤cient services to our customers.
TRANSPORT KEY HIGHLIGHTS
A WELL INVESTED FLEET ENABLING WHISTL TO REACH EVERY CORNER OF THE UK
A FLEXIBLE OPERATING MODEL OF A CORE FLEET COMPLEMENTED BY SELECTED SUB-CONTRACTORS
UTILISES TELEMETRY AND CAMERAS TO EFFECTIVELY MANAGE THE FLEET AND PROTECT THE DRIVERS
The transport fleet is an important part of our infrastructure and in 2017 we signed a contract for 41 new double deck trailers. We continue to invest in a robust IT infrastructure supporting Whistl’s operational excellence. Investments during 2017 included migration to a new accounting system Navision. Investment in time, to develop a clear and structured supplier management strategy coupled with an overall focus on maximising e¤ciency across the business will enable us to continue to make significant continued savings into 2018.
Nick Wells CEO
April 2018
CEO Business Review | Whistl Annual Report 2017
13
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker