Yamato Transport Co. said Tuesday it posted a group net profit of 16.56 billion yen in the first half of fiscal 2004, up 158.8 percent over a year earlier.
The biggest door-to-door parcel delivery company in Japan attributed the sharp profit rise to increased operating revenues resulting from the promotion of customer-friendly services to compete against fierce rivals, especially the state-backed Japan Post.
Also contributing to the profit increase was an extraordinary profit of 14.38 billion yen that was returned from retirement reserves for the adoption of a new reserve system for employee retirement benefits, it said.
Pretax profit grew 16.4 percent to 19.84 billion yen on a 6.1 percent rise in operating revenues to 513.93 billion yen, Yamato said in its consolidated earnings report covering the April-September period.
Despite an increase in expenses needed to compete with Japan Post, Yamato said it managed to post the results by reducing other costs.
Yamato said it will pay an interim dividend of 9 yen per share, up 1 yen from a year earlier.