Thailand Post looks set to miss profit target

       Thailand Post is likely to miss its profit goal of Bt700 million this year, due to the deteriorating economy.
       "Thailand Post will have to seek new revenue sources and continue to cut operating costs," president Ormsin Chivaprueck said yesterday.
       The state enterprise had expected net profit to reach Bt900 million this year before recently revising the figure downward to Bt700 million.
       But Ormsin yesterday said it would earn Bt350 million in the second half after eking out a net profit of Bt263 million in the first half.
       Last year it made Bt972 million.
       This year it projects total revenue of Bt15 billion, down from Bt16 billion last year. In the first half, revenue was Bt7.37 billion.
       The state enterprise has witnessed declining numbers of delivered mail, while the Internet has become a common communications choice of people and has stolen some of its mail business.
       More than 74 per cent of its revenue comes from the communications business, which includes mail delivery service, while the second main contributor is its logistics service.
       Of first-half revenue, Bt5.47 billion was generated by the communications business and Bt729 million by the logistics business.
       Thailand Post was the postal unit of the Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) before it was split off and corporatised in August 2003, while CAT became CAT Telecom.
       It has more than 20,000 employees and 1,000 branches nationwide.
       Since gaining its own identity, Thailand Post has kept launching services to boost revenues, ranging from logistics to utility-bill payment at its post offices and also food delivery.