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26.06.2021
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The net turnover of Latvijas Pasts in 2020 reached 94.1 million euro, and the company’s net profit in that period amounted to 4.2 million euro, according to Latvijas Pasts annual report 2020. Latvijas Pasts was able to ensure stable turnover and profit growth, continue to meet strategic goals in regard to the improvement of remuneration for employees of general occupations and implement substantial modernisation projects at the time when the company’s financial and economic activities were profoundly affected by the COVID-19 crisis. In the conditions of the pandemic Latvijas Pasts had to find alternatives for the provision of international item delivery, as well as strengthen security measures, remodelling the service provision processes and finding solutions for the handling, delivery and issuance of the uneven quantity of items.
The net profit of Latvijas Pasts in 2020 was by 3.4 million euro higher than planned in the initially approved budget of Latvijas Pasts, and by 2.7 million euro higher than in 2019. Although the year 2020 was dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which outlined a number of difficulties that the company had to solve both internationally and locally at each post office throughout Latvia, from a financial and economic point of view it can be considered a positive period for Latvijas Pasts, when significant modernisation and development projects were also implemented.
At the same time in 2020 Latvijas Pasts continued targeted efforts aimed at the fulfilment of strategic goals regarding the improvement of remuneration for Latvijas Pasts employees of general occupations. Despite the unplanned increase in costs due to the purchase of disinfectants and safety products to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the targets set in this area were met and the remuneration of these occupational groups was increased during the reporting period.
“The past year made us think and work much faster in order to ensure business continuity in extraordinary circumstances and to enable our customers both in Latvia and abroad to receive postal services. We were more rapid in the implementation of digitisation projects that had already been started, ensuring more efficient and diverse delivery and issuance options. The challenging circumstances proved that Latvijas Pasts is a united team that is able to pull together and find solutions to the most difficult problems. I would like to thank both my colleagues and Latvijas Pasts customers for their cooperation and perseverance during this period,” says Mārcis Vilcāns, Chairman of the Board of Latvijas Pasts.
The most significant increase in the revenue of Latvijas Pasts in the reporting period comes from the provision of the universal postal service. The revenue from it has grown by almost 20% or 6.2 million euro compared to 2019.
In the first two quarters of the reporting period the turmoil caused by COVID-19 on a global scale adversely affected the revenue of Latvijas Pasts in the segment of postal transit cargo shipments, which had stopped completely for one month in the reporting period. In the middle of 2020, however, the situation stabilised, and in the last months of the reporting period Latvijas Pasts serviced an average of 20 transit aircraft per month, reaching a total of 219 aircraft in 2020 or over four times more than in 2019.
Under the influence of COVID-19 the number of cross-border express mail items from Latvia to foreign countries decreased, while the volume of domestic items increased by 40%, which was also facilitated by customers’ desire to receive items as quickly as possible by courier without visiting the post office in person during the state of emergency. Furthermore, in 2020 Eksprespasts of Latvijas Pasts received praiseworthy news from the Express Mail Service (EMS) Cooperative of the Universal Postal Union that in a competition of 198 member states Eksprespasts of Latvijas Pasts was recognised as the best express mail service in the world also in 2019: it was awarded the gold level quality assessment and the first place.
The major challenges in 2020 were associated with the impact of COVID-19, which on the one hand required the ability to respond promptly and provide services in emergency conditions, and on the other hand to quicker implement customer support and service modernisation projects, digital switchover and addressing the needs of customers, which did not decrease in the pandemic situation, but increased significantly due to the growth of distance shopping.
The security measures taken in 2020 significantly reduced international passenger air traffic, which is also used to transport postal items, thus hindering their exchange with foreign countries in all directions to and from Latvia. The movement of postal items was also negatively affected by congestion of items and queues at international transit airports, from where they are forwarded to other recipient countries. A significant challenge for Latvijas Pasts was the load on all types of transportation channels and capacities, as all postal companies around the world were simultaneously looking for alternative delivery solutions; moreover, the timely delivery of items to recipients was also hindered by delivery conditions in individual countries.
To address these issues, in 2020 specialists of Latvijas Pasts were continuously working on finding logistics solutions, often with employees working intensively also at weekends to provide alternative ways and routes of postal item delivery, using land and water transportation options among others and proactively chartering cargo charter flights in urgent circumstances.
Making a substantial step in the implementation of the company’s long-term development programme, in 2020 Latvijas Pasts launched the first fully automated postal item weighing, scanning, measuring and sorting equipment, concluding the implementation of the most ambitious investment project in recent years: with the help of artificial intelligence the line efficiently processes all types of postal items, ensuring twice as fast processing of twice as many items using the existing labour resources.
As part of the modernisation of the parcel locker network, one third of the total number of parcel lockers were replaced with parcel lockers of the newer generation in 2020, and the overall capacity of the parcel locker network was increased by 40% or more than 1,000 locker boxes, thus improving the speed of item movement and allowing for delivery and receipt of a larger number of items. In addition to more than 60 indoor parcel lockers, the first outdoor parcel machine of Latvijas Pasts was opened, which is planned to be supplemented with up to 120 new outdoor parcel lockers in 2021.
Continuing the diversification of item delivery options, in 2020 an item redirection solution was created, enabling redirection from the Latvijas Pasts mobile application and from the link included in the mobile text message notification, allowing any registered item to be forwarded to the address convenient for the customer: home, office, parcel locker, Circle K fuel station or elsewhere.
Although 2021 goes on under the shadow of COVID-19, for Latvijas Pasts it will be a year of major and significant technological changes and implementation of modernisation projects at various stages of the company’s operations and service provision: item delivery and processing, as well as customer service. Latvijas Pasts will continue to shape a favourable environment for customers and employees and will further intensify its efforts to become an ever better employer and service provider.
About SJSC Latvijas Pasts
Latvijas Pasts ensures the widest availability of postal services throughout Latvia by maintaining more than 600 post offices. The primary function of the company is provision of the universal postal service; Latvijas Pasts also provides commercial transport, express mail, payment, press subscription, retail and philatelic services. Latvijas Pasts is a wholly State-owned company with about 3,200 employees. The quality measurements of Latvijas Pasts domestic mail deliveries are regularly conducted by Kantar TNS, one of the leading market, social and media research agencies in Latvia. In turn, the quality measurements of the cross-border deliveries are provided within the framework of the International Post Corporation through the intermediary of the research companies Kantar TNS, Ipsos and Quotas.
Additional information:
Gundega Vārpa | Head of External Communications
E-mail: pr@pasts.lv; gundega.varpa@pasts.lv
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