Postal Service Begins FY23 Fourth Quarter with Steady Delivery Performance

Fiscal 2020 third quarter net loss attributable to WBA was $1.7 billion compared with net earnings of $1.0 billion the same quarter a year ago. Net loss per share1 was $1.95 compared with net earnings per share (EPS) of $1.13 the same quarter a year ago. The results reflect $2 billion in non-cash impairment charges related to goodwill and intangible assets in Boots UK reflecting deteriorated business conditions including the adverse impact of COVID-19 and resulting future uncertainty. Sales in the third quarter were $34.6 billion, an increase of 0.1 percent from the year-ago quarter, and an increase of 1.2 percent on a constant currency basis, as the pandemic sharply curtailed footfall in retail pharmacies. The company had an operating loss of $1.6 billion in the third quarter, compared to operating income of $1.2 billion in the same quarter a year ago, primarily due to impairment charges in Boots UK of $2 billion.

The United States Postal Service reported new delivery performance metrics for the fiscal second quarter dating from Jan. 1 through Mar. 25. Weekly service performance scores have improved for consecutive 4 weeks as the Postal Service continues its top-down focus on operational precision across the postal network to improve delivery reliability. For the week ending Mar. 25, service performance scores for First-Class Mail, Marketing Mail and Periodicals rose to the highest levels since pre-2021 peak holiday season. Second quarter service performance scores covering Jan.1 through Mar. 25 included: *First-Class Mail: 87.2 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a decrease of 1.9 percentage points from the fiscal first quarter. *Marketing Mail: 92.4 percent of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, consistent with performance from the fiscal first quarter. *Periodicals: 81.8 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of .9 percentage point performance from the fiscal first quarter.

The book printing market is experiencing high levels of demand and a continued resurgence among consumers for physical books. While a good problem to have, it could be a problem nonetheless as we move into 2023. Kevin Spall, senior VP at Scholastic, offers a perspective on this from the publishing side, explaining: “Publishers are full, having overbought because demand was high and capacity was low. We bought inventory to be prepared. And now, as demand softens, we still have inventory. The need to reprint is less certainly than it was a year ago when the demand was just starting to spike, and those are not issues that are going to go away quickly.” Demand has soared in 2022, according to the Book Manufacturers Institute’s (BMI) "State of the Book Industry 2022” report. The printed book market remains on an upward trajectory, continuing to build on the momentum of 2020, when COVID-19 kept people at home and interest in reading surged.