DHL Ireland delivers fourth straight year of profit

Pre-tax profits at the Irish arm of international distribution giant DHL last year increased by 10% to €1.74m.

The profit rise arose mainly from an exceptional pension gain of €2m.

Last year, revenues at DHL Express (Ireland) Ltd increased by 5% going from €76.5m to €80.2m.

In the accounts, the company’s directors state that “the company’s repositioning strategy, initiated in 2009, has led to the successful turnaround from losses in 2010 to four consecutive years of profit thereafter.”

They added that “the company will continue to focus on its core international air and road express business throughout 2015, seeking to provide the best service offer to its customers at the lowest operating costs.”

The turnaround in the firm’s fortunes followed DHLIL restructuring its business here in 2010 to scale back its domestic delivery service that included the closure of five DHL service centres and the loss of 300 jobs.

The directors state that the increase in revenues in 2014 “is mainly driven by the ongoing improvement in core international revenue and a customer-centric focus which has fostered further customer acquisitions in 2014”.

The directors also state that challenges in business to consumer deliveries continued to impact the DHL Express cost position in 2014 but this has been offset by ongoing improvements in operational productivity and savings.