Tag: New Zealand Post

New Zealand’s top postman, John Allen, is an enthusiast. A compulsive optimist. Last month he was out there again, all smiles and singing the praises of his “great enterprise” New Zealand Post.

That he was happy was understandable. Despite a continuing drop in his core business of delivering letters, the State Owned Enterprise had delivered yet another increase in net profits, up from NZD21 million in 2001 to NZD36.5 million last year and NZD40.4 million in the first six months of this year.
Allen’s succession to the chief executive’s chair at NZ Post in 2003 may have been ordained, but it wasn’t without incident. Remember Post’s international consultancy Transend and ACT MP Rodney Hide’s hounding from office of board chairman Ross Armstrong for what Hide called perk abuse? Tainted by association, it took the gloss off an otherwise polished performance at the top by Allen’s predecessor Elmar Toime.

New Zealand Post today reported a net profit of NZD40.4 million for the half year ended December 31, up from NZD21.7 million for the previous corresponding period.

Operating revenue for the period was worth NZD618 million, up from NZD523.8 million, while operating expenditure rose to NZD559.2 million from NZD486.6 million.

An interim dividend of NZD19.2 million will be paid for the half year, up from NZD13 million for the same time last year.

NZ Post’s chief executive John Allen said the higher earnings were largely due to an improved performance by the Express Couriers business, and a NZD6 million gain from the sale of the Christchurch Mail Centre. Kiwibank was also a major contributor, having posted it first ever profit last month, when it announced a half year net profit of NZD2.5 million, up from a NZD1.5 million loss the same time the previous year.

The amount of personally addressed junk mail could double as New Zealand Post tries to find ways to arrest falling letter volumes.

The state-owned postal service is looking for ways to improve the quality of the household mailing lists that it sells to business customers who in turn use the information to send personalised advertising.

Letter volumes have been falling by up to 4 per cent a year for several years as people replace pen and paper with email and other electronic communication.

“The biggest single challenge we face is clearly the continuing use by customers of letters as a means of communication,” New Zealand Post chief executive John Allen said.

The best way to do that was to further increase the use of mail by business customers.