TTPost not profitable, seeks to diversify

TTPost is not profitable, chairman Eula Rogers has said. The state courier service has also not prepared financial statements since before 2014, but it is hoping to tackle that by the end of this year, and by next year, have statements at least up until 2017.

“TTPost is not profitable, right now, not based on the numbers we have,” Rogers said.

Owing to the backlog in accounting, she could not give firmer figures. She noted that the current subvention from the government to keep the company going is $79 million.

As it transforms to deal with the new competitive environment the company intends to improve training, but Rogers said there was yet to be any assessment of whether any of the company's 1,015 employees would be cut.

The company is trying to diversify its offerings, and Rogers and other executives were on hand at TTPost’s St Vincent Street corporate retail office in Port of Spain, to explain how they plan to combat that.

Probably the biggest setback is that TTPost's main product, traditional letter mail delivery, is falling.

The company’s managing director, Richard Saunders,“We have to look at the diversity of TTPost. The basic product like letter mail is being reduced, and e-mail and cellphones are taking their toll on the market,” said adding that the company plans to expand its market and service offerings to improve performance, including improved logistics services, like delivery.

Among its plans is the full implementation of its new six-digit address code (like a US ZIP code), which will help with sorting and deliveries. The company has already started rolling it out in about ten per cent of the areas it covers. The postcode plan has been a work in progress since 2012.

The company is also trying to leverage its position as the utility with the greatest network and reach to people in TT, and tapping into the international courier service via its Hummingbird Express, which the company claims is faster and cheaper than its competition. Manager of the division George Nicholas Martin said since its launch last year, the service has been growing, especially now, during the busy Black Friday/Cyber Monday rush.

The company is also trying to push its collection of special edition stamps, prints and even specialty mailboxes.

And for all those children worried about their letters to Santa this Christmas, marketing manager Carl Ramdeo confirmrd that the corporation has received their messages, and assured TTPost had a direct link to the North Pole and would be making their deliveries as efficiently as possible.