The weak economy is causing problems for the postal group DHL

The weak economy is causing problems for the postal group DHL. After the company had to revise its forecast for the full year downwards last week, it presented figures for the third quarter, according to which the company was less profitable than before. Sales rose by 6.2 percent to 20.6 billion euros. However, the operating result remained the same as in the same period last year at just under 1.4 billion euros. If you look at the first nine months of this year, the operating result fell from 4.7 billion to 4.0 billion euros.

According to the company, the reasons for the negative development are a less lucrative freight business and a significantly weaker mail business: In the third quarter, the volume of advertising mail in Germany fell by 18.9 percent. Although the volume of parcels increased, this could not compensate for the increased material and personnel costs as well as the losses in the mail business. The number of normal letters – called letter communication – also fell, although only by 2.9 percent.

At the turn of the year there will be a postage increase with which the postal service wants to get more money into its coffers. So far, the Federal Network Agency is planning to allow the postal service to increase the price of 10.5 percent for sending letters in Germany. That’s not enough for the Bonn-based group, which operates as Deutsche Post in the mail business.