PostNL sees large profit increase during pandemic
PostNL's profits more than doubled last year compared to 2019. The increase is largely due to many people ordering more packages online after on-site shopping locations were closed to combat the spread of the coronavirus, the ANP reports.
The postal service's profits rose from 72 million in 2019 to 209 million last year. PostNL announced that the profit would be distributed among employees and that it would resume paying dividends to shareholders. The company aims to pay 0.28 euros per share.
In total, PostNL's turnover rose from 2.8 billion euros in 2019 to 3.3 billion in the previous year. One billion euros of the entire turnover were made in the last quarter of 2020 when it was no longer possible to shop at physical store locations.
CEO of PostNL, Herna Verhagen, believes the uncertainty created by the pandemic will persist. PostNL expects to grow by an additional ten percent in the upcoming year. Even when stores reopen, parcel volume is expected to grow by ten to twelve percent. Verhagen says the company is investing 80 million euros to improve on digitization.
In order to manage the larger workload, PostNL hired more than one thousand new workers. The postal service additionally opened two new sorting centers and a new location for the handling of smaller packages.
The decrease in mail delivery was less harsh than expected with a shrinkage of only 0.2 percent. Nonetheless, 9.6 percent fewer letters and cards were sent last year. The majority of mail stemmed from businesses.
PostNL is currently working on improving its structural growth. The company states that the growth must derive entirely from its parcel delivery.
