New Zealand Post improved revenues and profits in the half-year ending December 2018 as e-commerce generated strong growth for its parcels business.
The postal operator today announced a net profit after tax of N$7 million for the six months to 31 December 2018, up slightly from N$6 million in the same period of 2017. Revenues increased by 4.2% to N$471 million as NZ Post delivered a record 14.5 million parcels during November and December.
“These figures show our focus on our parcels business is the right one. Our operational performance has been a stand out for the first six months of this year and has shown a significant improvement for us,” said CEO David Walsh. “The profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation is a N$17 million half year improvement.”
He continued: “We are seeing a positive shift in our results thanks to our strong operational performance, whilst also holding costs steady. This is showing up in increased revenue, customer satisfaction and also CourierPost having the best operational courier service in the industry.
Looking ahead, Walsh commented: “We’ve just delivered record breaking numbers of parcels over Christmas, and more growth is predicted over the next 12 months.”
However, he cautioned: “The six-month performance is encouraging but there is still a lot of work to do as we continue to change to meet customer and consumer demand and create a viable future focused business.”
The CEO explained that over the past eight years NZ Post has changed dramatically, to a customer focused delivery business that matches business and consumer demand and delivers what people care about.
“While we are committed to providing a sustainable mail service to New Zealand, it’s the parcels business that is generating this growth, and there’s more work to come. We will continue to develop NZ Post’s network of the future so that it will meet parcel and ecommerce growth. We will keep pursuing opportunities to grow and will be vigilant about keeping costs down.”
On prospects for the declining mail business, Walsh said: “In the last six months we delivered 200 million letters, but we are impacted by ongoing letter decline (30 million fewer letters were delivered in the six-month period to 31 December 2018 compared to the same period last year). We continue to work hard to find ways to offer a letter delivery service that meets customer needs and that we can cover the costs of. We will continue to work vigorously on creating a sustainable mail service.”
