Jersey Post Annual Report and Accounts | 2012 - States Assembly

Jersey Post Annual Report and Accounts | 2012
With little possibility of raising equity or long-term debt, we
will rely on accumulated reserves for seed funding of any
new ventures, but your Board recognises the inefficiency
of holding cash reserves significantly surplus to known
requirements. Accordingly it decided to return £4.5 million
to the shareholder by way of a special dividend. Of this,
£3 million had been paid by the year end and the balance
will be paid in 2013. I am also pleased to propose a modest
increase in the ordinary dividend by 2% to £382,000.
The directors believe that dividend cover at 3 times is
appropriate given the volatility of trading conditions. At
the year end the company still had cash and other short
term investments totalling £13.7 million; so subject to our
concerns about the deficit in our sub-fund of PECRS which
stood at £5.4 million at the year end and the unpredictable
risks it presents, the company remains strong.
The Board welcomes CICRA’s recent proposal to reduce
the level of regulation of the postal sector. We believe
that considerable scope exists to recalibrate the resource
expended in postal regulation given the relatively minor
economic impact of consumer spending on postal services
and the disappearance of the only sizeable contestable
market following the removal of LVCR. The CICRA will
continue to regulate our quality of service and ensure the
Universal Service Obligation remains sustainable in its
present form for as long as possible. Whilst the company is
still dominant in some of its markets this privilege comes
with the burden of an obligation to provide public services
of little or no commercial interest to other postal operators.
The existence of a healthy range of competing providers
and technologies is a powerful motivator in our continuous
drive for efficiency and value for money.
revenue down
32% after LVCR
withdrawal
outward mail volumes
17%
FALL
inbound packets & parcels
28 % INCREASE
10