Australia Post delivers $200m loss, sinks into red

afr.com:

Australia Post has delivered a $200 million loss, its first major structural loss in more than 30 years, with the losses forecast to continue unless the federal government drastically cuts services.

While the parcel business continued to achieve steady growth, letter losses increased by over 50 per cent to $384 million. The estimated cost to deliver Post’s community service obligations rose to $442 million, up 27 per cent from last year.

Revenue from parcels and services remained steady at $7.3 billion. However, letters continued to decline with volumes down 7.8 per cent from last year.

The full-year loss of $200.3 million, down from a $55.3 million profit last year, is only the second full-year loss since Australia Post became a self-funded government business enterprise in 1989.

While the business recorded a$222 million loss under former CEO Ahmed Fahour in 2015, that loss was stacked with $190 million in provisions for redundancies and other one-off restructuring costs.

Chief executive Paul Graham said that further losses were unstoppable and inevitable without change.

“If we do everything in our power to run this business well and we get a favourable regulatory response towards modernisation, I’m confident that Australia Post will return to profit. Without this support, the FY23 loss will be followed by many more,” he said on Thursday.

Australia Post is pressing the federal government, which wholly owns the business, for a political commitment on changes including reducing letter frequency and closing some full-service post offices in metro areas.

Today, the average Australian household receives only 2.2 addressed letters each week, down from 8.5 each week in 2008, and this is expected to almost halve in the next