Swiss Post brings more parcels, but fewer letters

The trend from the past few years has continued this year at Post in the first half of the year. While the parcel business grew strongly, there was a decline in the mail business. In terms of earnings, the majority state-owned company is approaching the level from before the corona crisis.

In the first six months, the operating result (EBIT) increased by 114.5 percent to 103.4 million euros compared to the first half of 2020. Sales rose by 28.4 percent to 1.26 billion euros. The figures from the first half of 2019 showed sales of 981.1 million euros and an EBIT of 107.7 million euros. This year, the takeover of ING Austria’s private customer business by the Group’s own Bank 99 was an “important milestone”, said Post boss Georg Pölzl yesterday, Thursday, at an online press conference.

The parcel volume in Austria grew by a fifth, it increased even more in Turkey (+24 percent) and in Eastern Europe (+21 percent). There was an increase of two percent in advertising mail and a decrease of three percent in letter volume. Expressed in cash, there was an increase of three percent in the Letter & Advertising Mail division to 608.2 million euros, in Parcel & Logistics an increase of 70.7 percent to 628.1 million euros and in Branch & Bank an increase of 18, 9 percent to 34 million euros.

Swiss Post’s personnel expenses in the first half of 2021 amounted to 587.6 million euros, an increase of 18.9 percent. This also includes the takeover of the Turkish parcel provider Aras Kargo. On a comparable basis, personnel expenses totaled 11.5 percent or 56.7 million euros above the level of the previous year, due to the higher personnel requirements due to the increased parcel volumes.

Swiss Post continues to aim to combine growth and dividend strength. Pölzl announced that it would continue to guarantee an “attractive dividend policy” in the future. In the previous year the company paid a dividend of 1.60 euros per share.