DHL has responded to published comments of Clinton County Commissioner Randy Riley in which he said he does not believe the large dollar figures the company claims it is losing in its U.S. operations. On Wednesday evening, Riley, in turn, discussed the company response.

In an e-mailed statement to the Wilmington News Journal, DHL said, “As both DHL Express CEO John Mullen and DPWN CEO Frank Appel have stated in direct address to the DPWN investor community, DHL posted a loss of approximately $900 million in its USA Express operations in 2007 and projects a loss of $1.3 billion for the Express operations in 2008.”

The DHL statement concludes: “Deutsche Post and DHL have been completely forthright at all times in conversations with local and state representatives regarding DHL’s operating performance; and the extent of the DHL Express USA financial losses have been widely reported by financial analysts.” The acronym DPWN stands for Deutsche Post World Net, which is the name of the profitable parent corporation of DHL.

In a Tuesday News Journal report, Riley described the above dollar loss numbers as “bogus.” Further, Riley alleged, “I think we’ve gotten lied to, and now we’re really getting it stuck to us because they’re willing to maximize some profits on the backs of these people.”

On Wednesday, Riley elaborated on the grounds for his earlier published comments.

Riley recounted a July 14 visit to the Wilmington Air Park by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, who went there to deliver citizen petitions opposing DPWN’s plan to close DHL’s air hub. At that time, according to Riley, Brown specifically asked a top DHL manager based in Wilmington about the huge losses claimed by DHL.

Riley said Brown asked how the company could possibly have that large of a projected loss or “was it more likely that DHL was exporting some of their revenues to other DHL companies in other countries and importing losses to the United States’ market?”

With large global enterprises where “money is going from one pocket to the other so to speak, it’s hard to tell exactly how you’re doing your bookkeeping,” Riley said.

Moreover, Riley relayed statements made in meetings by representatives of both ABX Air and ASTAR Air Cargo, the two cargo airlines that fly DHL’s freight in the United States. Officials of those cargo airlines have said with the large projections of loss DHL claims are incurred in its U.S. operations, that even if ABX and ASTAR flew DHL’s freight for free, DHL would still lose money given the size of their claimed projected losses.

“And that’s just not conceivable,” said Riley. “So I doubt those figures.”

Along with Brown and Riley, Wilmington Mayor David Raizk also has said the same kind of thing about the extent of losses claimed by DHL for its U.S. operations.

“So it’s not just me,” Riley said. “I’m getting my information from other people who I trust a bit more than I trust DHL right now.”

Tags: Numbers game by DHL?