Irish arm of UPS returns to profit

THE Irish arm of international delivery company United Parcel Service (UPS) returned to profit last year in spite of a drop in revenues.

According to accounts recently filed with the Companies Office, UPS Ireland recorded a pre-tax profit of €4.94 million after recording a pre-tax loss of €1.85m in 2009.

The Dublin-based firm went into the red in 2009 following a €2.7m exceptional cost concerning restructuring costs and the redundancy of staff at a company call centre in Tallaght that UPS closed.

The US-owned company’s revenues last year dropped by 11% from €78.7m to €70m, with the company decreasing its employees from 875 to 637.

The figures show that the company’s operating profits increased by 462% from €916,694 to €5.1m.

However, redundancy costs last year of €159,691 hit UPS profits, but was down from the redundancy payments of €2m in 2009 arising from the closure of the Tallaght call centre.

UPS accumulated profits at the end of 2010 totalling €9.9m that contributed to shareholder funds amounting to €11.4m.

The figures show UPS had €20.4 million in cash and that their cost of sales last year dropped from €33.2m to €30.8m, with operating costs falling from €44.5m to €34m.

The directors do not recommend the payment of a dividend, saying they “believe that the future is bright for this industry”.

“The future economic performance of the Irish market will affect the business.” said the directors’ report. “Any major downturn could impact future growth forecasts.”

Last year, globally, UPS increased its revenues from $45 billion (€32bn) to $49bn, employing 400,600 across the world.

In 2010, the company delivered 4 billion packages.