Deutsche Post CEO denies 1 bn eur cost cut

FRANKFURT: The chief executive of Deutsche Post, Europe's biggest mail and express delivery company, denied a report the firm could launch a huge cost cutting programme at its mail unit, he told a newspaper.

"It's made up," Frank Appel told Germany's Frankfurter Rundschau in an interview published on Saturday, when asked about the report. "What is true, however, is that we're constantly working on our costs in the letter business," he added. Earlier in June German magazine WirtschaftsWoche had reported, citing company sources, that Deutsche Post was planning to save 1 billion euros ($1.34 billion) in its mail division within a year, instead of 180 million previously planned.

The company declined to comment on the report at the time. Appel also confirmed the company's long-term target of reaching 1 billion euros of profit in the division. Deutsche Post expects its mail division to generate earnings between 1.0-1.2 billion euros this year, while it sees group operating profit coming in at the upper end of the 1.6-1.9 billion euros forecast range.