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UPS sees consumers trading down as new ecommerce sites hit profits

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UPS sees consumers trading down as new ecommerce sites hit profits

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US consumers’ embrace of low-cost ecommerce sites brought a “quite explosive” volume of shipments for UPS in the second quarter but failed to prevent the delivery company’s profits from falling by almost a third.

UPS chief executive Carol Tomé told analysts on Tuesday that the company had seen “customers trade down between services” in the quarter to its “more economical products”, with new ecommerce entrants “highly leveraging” SurePost, one of its cheaper services.

Shares in the company suffered a record drop, closing down 12 per cent at $127.68, their lowest level in four years.

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Tomé did not identify the two new ecommerce groups that had started using its network, which have a similar profile to Chinese online retailers Shein and Temu, but told its earnings call “you can imagine who they are”. Chief financial officer Brian Newman said UPS had “invited” the ecommerce groups into its network.

UPS had seen a “shift towards value products with shippers choosing ground over air and SurePost over ground”, Tomé said, adding that it had also witnessed “a surge in lightweight, short zone volume moving into our network”.

The Atlanta-based parcel and shipping group, which is seen as an economic bellwether, reported a 30.1 per cent drop in its operating profits for the second quarter compared with the same period a year earlier.

It reported a smaller 1.1 per cent year on year decline in revenues, as it lowered its forecast for full-year adjusted operating margins to about 9.4 per cent, compared with the range of 10 per cent to 10.6 per cent it had given three months ago.

UPS earlier this year announced that it was cutting 12,000 jobs in an attempt to save $1bn following an expensive pay agreement with its Teamsters union. Executives said that its latest earnings reflected the “front loading of costs associated with our new labour contract”.

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The company also had to pay a one-off $94mn international regulatory fee in its second quarter.

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Russia says talks on US peace plan for Ukraine ‘are proceeding constructively’

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Russia says talks on US peace plan for Ukraine ‘are proceeding constructively’

FILE – Russian Presidential foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, left, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, center, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, foreground right, and Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Special Presidential Representative for Investment and Economic Cooperation with Foreign Countries Kirill Dmitriev, behind Witkoff, arrive to attend talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 2, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

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Video: First Batch of Epstein Files Provides Few Revelations

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Video: First Batch of Epstein Files Provides Few Revelations

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First Batch of Epstein Files Provides Few Revelations

The Justice Department, under pressure from Congress to comply with a law signed by President Trump, released more than 13,000 files on Friday arising from investigations into Jeffrey Epstein.

Put out the files and stop redacting names that don’t need to be redacted. It’s just — who are we trying to protect? Are we protecting the survivors? Or are we protecting these elite men that need to be put out there?

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The Justice Department, under pressure from Congress to comply with a law signed by President Trump, released more than 13,000 files on Friday arising from investigations into Jeffrey Epstein.

By McKinnon de Kuyper

December 20, 2025

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Apple, Google tell workers on visas to avoid leaving the U.S. amid Trump immigration crackdown

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Apple, Google tell workers on visas to avoid leaving the U.S. amid Trump immigration crackdown

With reported months-long consulate and embassy delays, Google and Apple say employees on H-1B visas should stay put in the U.S. right now to avoid the risk of getting stranded abroad. The latter tech company’s headquarters campus is seen in Mountain View, Calif.

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Apple and Google are warning some U.S-based employees on visas against traveling outside of the country to avoid the risk of getting stuck coming back, as the Trump administration toughens vetting of visa applicants, according to recent internal memos from the tech companies that were reviewed by NPR.

U.S. consulates and embassies have been reporting lengthy, sometimes months-long delays, for visa appointments following new rules from the Department of Homeland Security requiring travelers to undergo a screening of up to five years’ of their social media history — a move criticized by free speech advocates as a privacy invasion.

For Apple and Google, which together employ more than 300,000 employees and rely heavily on highly-skilled foreign workers, the increased vetting and reports of extended delays were enough for the companies to tell some of their staff to stay in the U.S. if they are able to avoid foreign travel.

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“We recommend avoiding international travel at this time as you risk an extended stay outside of the U.S.,” Berry Appleman & Leiden, a law firm that works with Google, wrote to employees.

The law firm Fragomen, which works with Apple, wrote a similar message: “Given the recent updates and the possibility of unpredictable, extended delays when returning to the U.S., we strongly recommend that employees without a valid H-1B visa stamp avoid international travel for now,” the memo read. “If travel cannot be postponed, employees should connect with Apple Immigration and Fragomen in advance to discuss the risks.”

Apple and Google declined to comment on the advisories, which were first reported by Business Insider.

It’s the latest sign of how the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies are affecting the foreign-born workforce in the U.S.

Earlier this year, the White House announced that companies will be subjected to a $100,000 fee for all new H-1B visas, a type of visa popular among tech companies eager to hire highly skilled workers from abroad.

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H-1Bs typically last three years, and applicants have to return to an embassy or consulate in their home country for a renewal, but reports suggest such a routine trip could lead to people being stranded for months as a result of the Trump administration’s new policies.

On Friday, The Washington Post reported that hundreds of visa holders who traveled to India to renew their H-1Bs had their appointments postponed with the State Department explaining that officials needed more time to ensure that no applicants “pose a threat to U.S. national security or public safety.”

At Google, the Alphabet Workers’ Union has been campaigning for additional protections for workers on H-1B visas. Those workers would be particularly vulnerable in the event Google carried out layoffs, since losing employer sponsorship could jeopardize their legal status, said Google software engineer Parul Koul, who leads the union.

The need to support H-1B holders at Google, she said, has “only become more urgent with all the scrutiny and heightened vetting by the Trump administration around the H1B program, and how the administration is coming for all other types of immigrant workers.”

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