Online shopping boost gives DHL Ireland ‘excellent result’ for 2020

Increased online shopping by Irish consumers during the pandemic helped the Irish arm of DHL  record an “excellent result” with revenues of €104.3 million last year.

The report said that pre-tax profits for the express delivery company decreased only slightly from €4.13 million to €4.01 million last year.

Revenues decreased marginally from €104.5 million in 2019 to €104.3 million last year “which was an excellent result in the circumstances of a year dominated by the pandemic”, the report said.  According to the report “billed shipments and revenues were significantly impacted in the earlier months of the Covid crisis, but recovered strongly in the second half of the year”.

The report went on to say "during 2020 and with lockdowns in place across much of Europe for extended periods, there have been significant increases in international e-commerce volumes across our network".

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“This is especially apparent in relation to our inbound delivery network with growth driven by Irish consumers shopping online with international retailers,” the report said, and “this trend is expected to continue into the future”.

The company’s international air express service provides by far the biggest revenue contribution, according to the report.

The UK-Ireland route is the company’s “biggest trade lane”, and the report said that additional costs associated with Brexit would be well covered by the Brexit surcharge.

On the company’s future developments, the report said that despite the renewed lockdown in the early weeks of 2021, “trading volumes remain quite positive, and the strong performance from the second half of 2020 has continued into 2021”.

The company recorded post-tax profits of €3.5 million last year after paying corporation tax of €515,551.

Staff costs

Numbers employed last year increased from 367 to 398 as staff costs rose 9 per cent from €20.85 million to €22.72 million.

Directors’ pay totalled €668,124, made up of emoluments of €520,041, benefits under long-term incentive schemes of €109,646 and pension contributions of €32,437.

The profit takes account of operating lease costs of €3.4 million and non-cash depreciation of €1.15 million.

DHL Ireland is owned by the Deutsche Post AG Group, and at the end of December last the Irish unit’s shareholder funds totalled €16.52 million. The company’s cash funds increased from €13.8 million to €17.2 million.