An Post has received a €40m (US$44m) loan from the European Investment Bank to drive its digital, retail and environmental transformation.
The 10-year loan will form part of a €82 million investment plan by the postal operator to expand its green delivery fleet, to accelerate the use of innovation and digitization to enhance access to financial services, and to improve mail, parcel and e-commerce services for customers.
David McRedmond, CEO, An Post, said, “This ground-breaking contract demonstrates confidence in An Post’s transformation and digital strategy for the Irish economy, businesses of all sizes and local communities. It enables us to move faster and be smarter in changing from the old world of letters and cash to the new digital world of e-commerce and financial services.”
An Post has already transformed the business from making losses of €12.4m in 2016 to recording profit of €41.2m in 2018. According to McRedmond, the post will achieve a similar or better performance in 2019.
The new loan will be used to invest in more than 750 electric vehicles for local deliveries and to upgrade digital customer services at around 950 of its post offices. The post will also invest in new high-performance automated parcel sorting and new app-based technology.
