Post Luxembourg recorded a net profit of €28.7m. Matic Zorman / Maison Moderne

Post Luxembourg recorded a net profit of €28.7m. Matic Zorman / Maison Moderne

Luxembourg’s Post group on 17 May published its annual report, revealing a 4% increase in turnover. Its net profit dropped by €7.5m.

Overall, the company has had a “solid” year, said managing director Claude Strasser in a statement. With a turnover of €898.9m, Post ended the year with a 4% growth compared to 2020. The results were in line with expectations, Strasser said, and the impact of the covid-19 pandemic was diverse. For Post’s 4,725 employees, the sanitary crisis “continued to weight on the morale of each of us”, Strasser said. 

One of the reasons for Post’s decreased net profit for 2021--down to €28.7m--is a decrease of €13.6m in financial results which had suffered from a higher direct charge compared to 2020. Finance activity also fell to €22.2m (-8.8%) over the past year, due to the impact of interest income.

Telecom segment main contributor

Post Courrier contributed €199.5 to the consolidated turnover, according to the company. This represents a 4.6% increase compared to 2020. The company here noted the efficiency of its strategy to tackle the continuous increase of parcels needing to be delivered.

Post’s telecommunications department contributed most to the group’s profit. Growth of mobile and business solutions can be credited for the 1.3% growth in consolidated revenues--reaching €485.9m.

“Post expects a general increase in data consumption of over 30% per year. In order to proactively accompany this development, Post aims to expand its fibre coverage from 77% currently to 90% of households by 2025. This effort will be complemented by the ongoing rollout of the 5G network,” the company said.

Strasser underlined that the group’s “significant investments” in 5G, All IP and optical fibre will allow the company to cater to the customers’ future demands while keeping up its connectivity levels.

Investments into Post increase

The development and deployment of these technologies, as well as the construction of Post’ future headquarters have impacted the group’s budget too--in 2021, investments grew by €13.1m to €150.6m.

According to board of directors chairman Serge Allegrezza, these expenses “ are entirely financed by the liquidity generated by the company's own activity resulting from its turnover, without any allocation from the state. All investments, past and future, are fully paid for by own means.”