Saturday, April 22, 2006

UPS Q1 profit at $975 million

United Parcel Service Inc.'s profit for the first quarter grew about 11 percent, as its revenue jumped almost 17 percent.

The Atlanta-based package delivery company had net income of $975 million on $11.5 billion in revenue, compared with net income of $882 million on $9.9 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2005. Earnings were 89 cents a share, up from earnings of 78 cents a share in the first quarter of 2005.

"This was a quarter of outstanding growth that resulted in strong returns and excellent cash flow," said Mike Eskew, UPS chairman and CEO. "To drive future results, we will continue to invest in our network, technology and products to bring even more value to the customer."

U.S. Package Revenue grew 9.6 percent to $7.5 billion and volume grew 6.8 percent in total, or 848,000 packages per day. Revenue gains were a result of robust growth across all products combined with firm pricing, UPS said. Average daily ground volume rose 6.2 percent, or almost 650,000 packages per day.

UPS' International Package revenue grew 17.3 percent to $2.2 billion as volume grew 29.1 percent to 1.7 million packages per day. Export volume growth had a 16.3 percent increase, reflecting strong performance in all major regions of the world. Recently, UPS added international flights to and from China and expanded its operations there. The company also enhanced Trade Direct service between the United States, Canada and Europe.

Supply Chain and Freight revenue grew 53.9 percent to $1.9 billion, driven primarily by acquisitions. Freight forwarding and logistics operating profit was impacted by increased expenses and lost revenue due to the integration of the former Menlo Worldwide Forwarding unit. However, these results were somewhat offset by solid less-than-truckload revenue and shipment growth in the ground freight operations.

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