UPS works to avoid holiday shipping delays

For UPS, Christmas preparations come in July.

The Sandy Springs-based shipping giant announced it will bolster its operations for the day after Thanksgiving to better handle online orders in the days to follow.

“Over the past three or four years, Cyber Monday has become a [peak] week unto itself,” said UPS CFO Kurt Kuehn.

UPS hopes that expanding to a full operating day on Black Friday will help smooth out shipping operations during that period.

But that move and other preparations to avoid the holiday shipping delays that plagued the company last year are contributing to a $175 million increase in operating expense for UPS, which is weighing on its profit expectations.

“We are experiencing some growing pains right now,” Kuehn said. “This is a great problem to have,” as long as the company is successful in adapting, he said.