Australia Post reports 10% jump in group revenue
Australia Post has reported its $4.8 billion group revenue for the six months up to 31 December, up 10.4% year-on-year, was driven by ‘the strongest parcel volumes in the organisation’s history’.
Although Letters revenue was down 1.2% y-o-y at $935 million, Parcels and Services revenue surged 13.6% to $3.87 billion.
The improved Group profit before tax of $199.8 million was underlined by asset sales and revaluations, as well as favourable bond rate movements.
In a statement issued today (23 February), Australia Post said that operational costs, which increased by 13.2% on last year, reflect volume increases and COVID-19 related network constraints that are likely to continue in FY23.
Capital investment during the period increased to $217.8 million, up $28.4 million on last year. This forms part of the $400 million committed to new parcels facilities, fleet and technology by mid-2022 to help service the growing demand for services, bringing the total committed investment to more than $1 billion over three years.
The business also committed an additional $20 million in upgrading systems to cloud based solutions over the next year to improve parcel scanning and tracking in the network.
Australia Post’s Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Paul Graham, said the result was a “significant achievement” given the ongoing disruptions to the business during the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary network changes required to continue to provide essential goods and services to customers.
“Just like many businesses around the country, we have dealt with unprecedented challenges over the past year, but the ability of our people to adapt during ongoing challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic has been nothing short of remarkable,” said Graham.
“Together, we worked tirelessly to manage the health and wellbeing of our people, with isolation rules and travel restrictions across different states and territories all carrying different challenges – while our people remained resilient and delivered for our communities.
“I want to thank all of our people for the spirit they’ve shown and their willingness to get the job done for our customers. It is a credit to all of our team members in processing, delivery, customer service, our Post Offices (including Licensed Post Offices) as well as our contractor partners.
“Our retail network of more than 4,300 Post Offices continues to provide critical government and financial services, particularly in rural and remote Australia, where Bank@Post remains an invaluable service for communities.
“We had 112 million visits to our corporate and Licensed Post Offices across the country in the first half, with 20 million visits alone in December.”
Offering an outlook for the upcoming months, Australia Post said that e-commerce will be “more subdued” in the second half and “letter losses will continue”.
