Norwegian postal operator Posten Norge exceeded revenues of Nkr25bn (US$3bn) for the first time in its history in 2015, marking a 2.7% increase compared with the previous year. The group also announced pre-tax profits for the year of Nkr151m (US$18m). However, the group’s operating profit before non-recurring items (EBITE) amounted to Nkr686m (US$80m), a reduction of Nkr247m (US$29m) or 27% compared with 2014.
Revenue from logistics in 2015 increased by Nkr836m (US$97m) year-on-year, and 2.4% of this came from organic growth, mainly in the Nordic operations. The lower level of activity in the oil industry affected the logistics operations of the business in the offshore and energy business area, as well as indirectly affecting other business areas, leading to weaker profitability. At the same time, e-commerce continued to grow and Posten Norge’s total e-commerce volumes increased by 6% in 2015.
Dag Mejdell, CEO of Posten Norge, said, “We’re experiencing a significant decline in activity in the Norwegian market and the downturn is stronger than we predicted. So our profit is weaker than expected and 2016 will be another demanding year for the group. We have implemented measures to deal with this trend.
“In a difficult logistics market, e-commerce is an important growth area. We are already by far the experts on Norway and our growth now mainly comes from our Nordic operations.
“We can see that the decline in the mail volume is accelerating while the number of users of Posten Norge’s Digipost is rising. More and more people are using Digipost and we already have 600,000 users.
“We’ve succeeded in adapting to developments and new customer needs by reorganizing in time and have had good cooperation with our employee representatives. The need to reorganize will not become any less in the future. It’s important that we manage to stay ahead of the game. If we lag behind, we risk ending up with a built-up need to reorganize,” concluded Mejdell.
February 22, 2016
