Deutsche Post letter delivery revenues fall 10-12 pct in first quarter

Deutsche Post sustained a first-quarter revenue fall of 10-12 percent in its core letter delivery division owing to weaker postage stamp sales, the semi-privatised postal authority’s finance director said in comments released on Wednesday.

“The magnitude of the decline in revenues in this division is 10-12 percent,” Deutsche Post finance chief Edgar Ernst told the investors weekly Focus Money in an article scheduled to hit the newsstands on Thursday, but released in advance.

With the euro becoming legal tender in Germany and the rest of the single currency area from 2002, customers had bought fewer postage stamps since the beginning of the year because they were using up stocks of deutschemark stamps, which are only valid until July 1, Ernst explained.

But the trend would prove only temporary, since stocks “will dry up sooner or later,” Ernst forecast.