Bonn (dpa) – Thanks to the online boom and good freight business, the logistics giant Deutsche Post DHL has raised its profit forecast for the fourth time this year.
As emerged from a communication from the Bonn group on Thursday, the yellow giant “against the background of the excellent business development” is even more optimistic for the year as a whole than before.
In August, the Post assumed that its operating profit in 2021 would be more than seven billion euros. Now it is said by Post that the minimum value will be even higher – it will reveal on November 4th what billions that will be.
In the first three quarters, the company posted an operating profit (EBIT) of 5.76 billion euros, roughly double that of the same period in the previous year (around 2.9 billion euros). As recently as March, the company had estimated that it would probably achieve an EBIT of more than 5.6 billion euros – but for the full year.
Thanks to online trading
“World trade has accelerated significantly compared to the previous year,” said Post boss Frank Appel. In addition, the shipment volumes in e-commerce are still high. “That is why we are optimistic about the upcoming Christmas business.” They are preparing intensively for possible record volumes in the coming weeks and have built up additional capacities.
Deutsche Post DHL is one of the big economic beneficiaries of the corona crisis. Because people are more at home than they used to be and less shopping in the city center, they order more online – and then wait for DHL couriers to deliver their parcels. The company is the market leader in Germany; its parcel competitors are Hermes, DPD, UPS, Fedex and GLS.
Thriving freight division
Other areas of the group, with around 570,000 employees worldwide, are also doing well, for example in freight traffic – a market in which customers are currently paying very high prices so that their goods can be shipped as quickly as possible and get to other continents. According to the information, the DHL freight division recorded an operating result of 370 million euros in the third quarter of 2021, which is more than double than in the same quarter of the previous year with 155 million euros.
The fact that the economy has picked up again after the Corona shock in 2020 is also noticeable in the express division: DHL posted an EBIT of 970 million euros in the third quarter, which was well above the already good prior-year quarterly operating result of 753 million euros . Above all companies use express services so that important documents or spare parts can be delivered within a guaranteed time. Deutsche Post DHL plans to present the complete set of figures for the third quarter of 2021 on November 4.