Austrian Post is rolling out additional innovative delivery solutions and will launch an ‘Austrian online shopping portal’ as it shakes up its parcel division with the sale of trans-o-flex and possible increase in its stake in Turkey’s Aras Kargo this year.
The postal group plans to launch an online marketplace for Austrian e-retailers this autumn to enable them to compete better with German rivals, who currently account for about 60% of e-commerce orders made by Austrians.
The new ‘Shöpping’ portal (a combination of ‘shopping’ and ‘Österreich’), a 100% subsidiary, “will present a broad range of products and offer the Post’s usual delivery quality”, the company said. “Shöpping will provide a push for domestic online trading as a hub for local retailers and consumers.”
At present, the ‘shoepping.at’ website displays a short video on the ‘from Austria for Austria’ concept and a text explaining that most Austrians currently “consciously or unconsciously” shop cross-border when buying online. “What’s missing is a national marketplace that offers the entire product range of Austrian traders in one place. With shopping.at we will bring online revenues back to Austria!”
In other moves, the company has launched evening deliveries in Vienna, offering same-day and next-day delivery of online orders with the aim of further improving first-time delivery rates. Evening deliveries were launched in the industrial city of Linz last autumn.
Self-service solutions are being further expanded with more than 300 self-service zones in post offices where customers can post letters and parcels round the clock and, in about 200 of these areas, collect parcels from lockers.
Moreover, the company now offers a new ‘online registration by video call’ service. Customers can register for online services via a video call during which a customer service representative checks their identity via documents and use of TAN codes.
Separately, Austrian Post has formally presented its 2015 results, which were released earlier than planned on March 7 together with the announcement of the planned sale of German subsidiary trans-o-flex. Revenue increased by 1.6% to €2,402 million and adjusted operating profits went up by 2.6% to €198 million last year although the sale of trans-o-flex led to a one-off non-cash effect in the consolidated financial results. Reported EBIT dropped by 55% to €89 million.
The Mail & Branch Network Division reported a 0.9% increase in revenue to €1,502 million last year, with a 4% drop in letter volumes offset by higher direct mail volumes and revenues supported by a price increase last March. Its operating profits improved by 5.4% to nearly €285 million.
The Parcel & Logistics Division increased revenues by 2.9% to just over €900 million last year. In Austria, accounting for 37.5% of this total, revenue increased by 7.4% driven by the trend towards online shopping and a market share increase in the business parcel segment. Parcel volumes increased by 8.5% to 80 million parcels. The small businesses in South East and Eastern Europe increased their revenues by 6.6%.
In contrast, German subsidiary trans-o-flex, representing 54% of the division’s revenues, saw revenues drop by 0.5% to about €500 million and it remained in the red. The company will be sold back to its former German owners in the coming weeks as Austrian Post exits the highly competitive German market. Austrian Post booked an impairment loss of €125.8 million for trans-o-flex in its 2015 accounts. As a result, the parcels division reported a heavy loss of €105 million.
Looking ahead to this year, Austrian Post said its revenues will depend significantly on portfolio changes as well as falling letter and rising parcel volume trends while it aims for stable operating profits this year. Apart from the trans-o-flex sale, the company said it will decide during the year whether to increase its stake in Turkish firm Aras Kargo. It currently owns 25% of the company and has the option to increase this to 75% during 2016.
Aras Kargo delivers some 100 million parcels and documents and increased revenues (in Turkish lira) by nearly 13% last year to the equivalent of €270 million. If the share option is exercised and the Turkish firm is consolidated into Austrian Post’s figures, then this would replace just over half of the revenues lost from the planned trans-o-flex disposal.
