Lithuanian Post reports 39percent pretax profit growth for 2003

The state postal operator Lietuvos Pastas (Lithuanian Post) has reported a 39.2 percent rise to 8.3 million litas (EUR 2.4 mln) in pretax earnings for 2003.

The company has said that its full-year revenues grew by 6 percent to 151.2 million litas last year, of which 61.9 percent came from mail services, 22.2 percent from financial services, 3.14 percent from courier services.

According to data from the Lithuanian Statistics Department, the total number of mail items, excluding parcels, handled by Lietuvos Pastas fell by 0.6 percent, year-on-year, to 50.76 million, of which the number of mail items handled within Lithuania was down by 0.1 percent to 40.103 million. The number of mail items sent to foreign countries rose by 2.7 percent to 5.287 million, while the number of items received dropped by 7.1 percent to 5.37 million.

Amid intensifying competition, the total number of parcels handled by Lietuvos Pastas shrank by 10 percent, year-on-year, to 143,900 last year.

At the start of this year, Lietuvos Pastas operated a network of 945 post offices, including 10 regional main offices, 222 offices in urban areas and 713 offices in rural areas, 6 mobile offices and 10 postal agents.

Lietuvos Pastas employed a workforce of over 8,000 people last year.