por admin » Lun Oct 24, 2011 8:40 am
Fed bullish acerca de la economia
BUSINESSOCTOBER 24, 2011, 11:05 A.M. ET
FedEx Expects to Ship 260 Million Packages in Holiday Season, Up 12%
Stock Quotes
By BOB SECHLER
FedEx Corp. forecast record holiday shipping Monday but said the increased package volume would be fueled by its least-profitable, ecommerce-related residential service.
FedEx said it expects to move 17 million packages overall on what it anticipates will be its busiest day of the year Dec. 12, up 10% from its busiest day during last year's holidays and nearly double what it handles on a normal day.
The Memphis, Tenn.-based package giant said it will handle 260 million shipments between Thanksgiving and Christmas, or 12% more than last year. But it attributed the trends primarily to growing use of online-shopping by consumers, which is leading to big volume increases for its SmartPost residential service.
FedEx Chief Executive Fred Smith said earlier this month that he expected retail sales to be up only 2.5% to 3% overall during the holidays.
The company also announced plans to hire 20,000 seasonal workers, compared with 17,000 last year.
FedEx's SmartPost service, in which postal carriers make final delivery, garners relatively low profit margins for the company because the packages are lightweight and don't arrive at their destinations according to time-definite schedules.
"The volume is lower yielding and lower margin than our other services," said FedEx spokesman Jess Bunn.
The company didn't change its overall financial outlook because of Monday's forecast for increased holiday shipments, saying the trends were included in its previous forecast.
Last month, FedEx cut its profit outlook for its full fiscal year, echoing warnings from other industry players that global trade had slowed and Asian shipments were particularly weak.