Anthrax scares failed to upset the mail market last year, with New Zealand Post reporting an increase in mail volumes of 1.3 per cent for the six months to December 31.
However, the increase in letters did not boost the performance, as NZ Post reported an after-tax profit of $16 million, down 28% on the previous first-half.
The result to December takes into account operating expenses of $5.7m for setting up Kiwibank.
The heat has been turned up on New Zealand Post after Parliament’s influential finance and expenditure committee refused to sign off its financial review and announced an inquiry sparked by it blocking the release of documents.
The finance and expenditure committee yesterday sought a six- week extension of its inquiry into New Zealand Post’s financial state of affairs after a series of revelations about its subsidiary Transend, whose three- year $54 million contract to restructure the South African postal service was terminated a year early.
New Zealand Post chiefs say they never intended to mislead MPs by denying they had a report about a troubled contract with South Africa Post.
It later emerged that they had received draft copies of the so-called Kroll report.
Australia Post has ambitious plans to provide warehousing, logistics and assembly services for the information technology (IT) industry. The company recently signed a contract with Microsoft Australia for distribution of the Xbox video game consoles.
Read MoreIn the late 1990s, many IT gurus eagerly consigned Australia Post to the dustbin. A warhorse of the old economy, the government-owned monopoly couldn’t possibly compete with e-mail, electronic fulfilment and private high-tech mailing houses. Or so went the gurus’ mantra.
Within a few years its core business would wither and die; outlets would shut down and the gleaming, paperless world of private electronic delivery would stand supreme.
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