Australia Post reports $126.1m annual profit
Australia Post has reported a full-year profit before tax of $126.1m, which more than tripled the $41m it made in FY16. In a statement issued today (28 August), the company emphasized that it had achieved this “despite record letter volume decline”.
The company was supported by its “continued strong growth in the parcels business”, driven by the e-commerce sector.
Addressed letter volumes were down 11.8% and contributed to a $180m loss before tax in the postal business. In contrast, parcels profit before tax increased by 4.8% to $299.7m.
Revenue was up 3.7% to $6.8bn.
Australia Post Acting Managing Director and Group CEO Christine Corbett said this result demonstrated the shift to becoming a major eCommerce player is paying dividends.
“Last Christmas we had our largest ever parcel delivery day, with more than two million parcels delivered in a single day, and we’ve continued to experience strong growth throughout what is traditionally a quieter second half,” said Corbett.
“With new entrants to the market contributing to overall growth in eCommerce volumes, we expect our parcels business to continue to grow, allowing for reinvestment in customer initiatives like MyPost, parcel lockers and digital trusted services.
“A pleasing highlight this year was an increased Net Promoter Score for customer engagement and we recently signed a new three-year Enterprise Agreement strongly supported by our large award workforce.
“The letters business still presents a significant challenge, with our largest ever 12 month volume decline experienced this year. We need to continue to ensure this business is sustainable, while managing the declining foot traffic in post offices, and we are speaking with the community on how they may use the letters service in the future.”
Australia Post also today released the 2017 Remuneration Report for key management personnel. This report is available at auspost.com.au/about-us/news-media/publications.
Australian postal workers union representatives express strong displeasure with some of the remuneration details. In a statement sent to Post&Parcel, Leroy Lazaro, State Secretary of the Victorian Branch of the Communication Workers Union, said that members were “outraged” with payments made to outgoing CEO Ahmed Fahour.
