Our Mail business performed well in 2022 with new customers won and significant volume retention, despite the impact of Royal Mail industrial action.
Welcome to our annual report covering 2022. There is no doubt that many businesses have faced a tough trading environment throughout the year. The challenges we faced in 2022 were universal, including the post pandemic correction in e-commerce growth; inflationary pressure on costs; rising fuel prices; and economic uncertainty. There were continuing Covid restrictions on Chinese manufacturers, supply chain disruption across the globe and the impact of the war in Ukraine. As a company that is impacted by variations in marketing and discretionary consumer spend our 2022 turnover declined by £53.1m to £770.1m and EBITDA before exceptional items went down from £15.6m to £7.2m. This reflects mainly the impact of these economic headwinds, plus the fact that 2021 comparatives are challenging given it was an exceptional trading year. Our diversified and portfolio-based business remained resilient. The Whistl Group strategy with four complementary divisions is unchanged with the “core” businesses of DSA Mail and Doordrop delivering market share gain and the Parcels and E-commerce Fulfilment businesses looking for revenue growth. This comes from: our strong relationships with customers; our investment in our employees; and our commitment to be a sustainable operator in the communities of which we are part.
Our Mail business performed well in 2022 with new customers won and significant volume retention, despite the impact of Royal Mail industrial action. Although parcel volumes fell, reflecting the overall parcel market, we saw a move towards higher margin tracked services as the price differential with untracked continued to close. E-commerce Marketing which is exposed to consumer behaviour faced challenges as consumers reduced spend due to the perceived threat of recession and cost of living squeeze. International volumes were impacted by continuing global disruption in ports, inflated costs of containerisation and supply chain issues. In our Fulfilment division, we processed fewer items as part of the post pandemic recalibration of online consumer spend. Also, our customers had difficulty forecasting demand which impacted on our ability to manage costs and efficiency. A new management team is now in place in the Fulfilment division which will have a positive impact on the performance in that division. We continued to look for operational efficiency opportunities and invested in initiatives including a new Transport Management System and recruitment and training to reduce our reliance on agency workers. Investment in our colleagues was ongoing with training available for every employee. We launched new programmes such as the Sortation Apprenticeship, ensuring that every person’s skill and career were enhanced.
We remain committed to operate sustainably and act to reduce the adverse effects on the environment. During the year we began developing our road map to meet UK Government mandatory targets and expected best practice.
Nick Wells Executive Chairman 25 May 2023
Whistl Annual Report 2022
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