United Parcel Service Inc., Atlanta, reported a 1.2 percent increase in its fourth-quarter net income yesterday, earning $866 million in the three months ended Dec. 31 compared with a profit of $856 million in the year-ago period.
Revenue for the quarter rose to $9.84 billion, with double-digit growth reported by the international and non-package segments and a 6.6 percent increase by the U.S. domestic segment.
“UPS delivered almost 3.6 billion packages in 2004 — the most in our history — although we were disappointed with our U.S. ground volume growth in the fourth quarter,” said Scott Davis, chief financial officer.
Worldwide package volume for the quarter rose 3.7 percent to 963 million, while consolidated average daily volume increased by 297,000 packages to 15.5 million. Growth was led by international export volume, up 13.5 percent, and U.S. Next Day Air, which climbed 4.1 percent. Ground volume within the United States grew 1.5 percent.
“We are accelerating efforts to sell solutions to the midsized customer market that combine supply-chain and small-package capabilities,” Davis said. “And we also plan to dramatically increase the number of customers who are technologically linked to UPS through electronic shipping systems.”
Net income last year totaled $3.3 billion, up 15 percent from the $2.9 billion reported in 2003. Revenue increased 9.2 percent to a record $36.6 billion, up from $33.5 billion in 2003.
Melissa Campanelli covers postal news, CRM and database marketing for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
