POST Luxembourg Turnover Rises 0.3% to €864m in 2020

At a press conference on Tuesday 18 May 2021, Serge Allegrezza, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Claude Strasser, Managing Director, presented POST Luxembourg Group's 2020 results. 

In 2020, despite the exceptional context marked by the COVID-19 crisis, POST ensured the continuity of its missions and achieved its annual objectives while assuming additional tasks related to the health crisis. POST Luxembourg Group recorded a slight increase in turnover of €2.5 million to €864.4 million, an increase of 0.3% compared to 2019. Last year was exceptional on two levels as all three POST business lines, namely postal and telecommunication services as well as postal financial services, managed to achieve their annual targets while assuming the daily management of the crisis. 

Operating profit (EBITDA) fell by 16% to €153.4 million over one year. Net profit stood at €36.2 million, a decrease of 5%.

"Because of our special status, we invest the money we earn in the infrastructure and technology needed for the country's development. For 2020 these investments amount to €138 million. Our aim is to generate value, without aiming for excessive profitability. POST is always looking for a balance between its public service and universal service missions and profitability", explained Serge Allegrezza, Chairman of the Board of Directors of POST Luxembourg.

2020 revealed how the modernisation of POST and the investments made over several years, particularly in POST's telecommunication networks as well as in parcel management and distribution, proved invaluable during the health crisis and confirmed the relevance of its strategy "Mir sinn d’POST" ("we are POST").

Driven by changes in consumption, with a strong propensity for online shopping since the first lockdown, parcel volumes in 2020 exceeded the 6.1 million mark, an increase of 47% compared to 2019. At the same time, the postal business continued to be influenced by the evolution of digitalisation leading to a decline in mail volumes.

Claude Strasser, Managing Director of POST Luxembourg, commented: "The health crisis has accelerated this digitalisation process, which is also reflected in the evolution of mail volumes. If we exclude the approximately 6 million letters sent in 2020 as part of the Large Scale Testing, the number of letters is down by more than 12% in one year. This has to be taken into account in our projections and we are aware that this trend will continue in the years to come". 

POST Luxembourg's logistics activities, initially specialised in the management of parcels from Asia destined for the European market, were expanded in 2020 to the local level. In addition to handling 14 million parcels from Asia at Luxembourg Airport for delivery throughout Europe, POST's logistics department managed the logistics centre at corona.letzshop.lu for storage and order picking in the context of the health crisis and coordinated the packaging and distribution of masks to businesses and part of the population.

With a turnover of €190.7 million , the postal business managed to compensate for the 6.9% drop in the volume of letters at national level (€60 million in turnover) by increasing the volume of logistics (up 7.5% to €44 million) and parcels (up 47% to €20.5 million).

With €479.7 million (up 3.4% compared to 2019), the telecommunications sector accounted for almost 60% of the POST Group's turnover.

In structural decline for several years, due to lockdown and teleworking, fixed voice business volume was stable for 2020, with a significant increase at the beginning of the crisis as many calls from workstations were diverted to mobile phones across the border. The limitation of travel for health reasons led to a drop in roaming in turnover of €1 million, while overall consumption for 2020 remained stable.

On the other hand, companies put their major infrastructure projects on hold. POST had to respond to urgent requests from business and residential customers and simultaneously maintain its internal operations. During the first few weeks of the lock-down, POST teams worked seven days a week to meet demands and enable businesses to maintain their operations. Despite the unforeseen challenges related to the health crisis, POST Telecom managed to launch new products and services, including WIFI POWER and eSIM, a new generation SIM card.

The pandemic has accelerated the digitalisation of the economy, creating new types of risks that require enhanced support from cybersecurity experts. The recent regrouping of all the Group's skills in this area within a single team called "POST Cyberforce" has enabled POST to react quickly to the evolution of the cyber threat in times of health crisis.

Following the ILR's auction of the frequencies needed for the 5G rollout, POST was the first operator to launch its 5G mobile network on 16 October 2020 and to introduce 5G in its mobile packages, with no increase in rates. By the end of 2020, POST had commissioned ten sites to provide coverage in Luxembourg City, which has already been extended to other regions. "Our goal is to achieve 5G coverage for 90% of the population of the Grand Duchy by 2023", added Claude Strasser.

The modernisation of POST's telecommunication networks is planned according to projections over the next seven to nine years, assuming an average traffic increase of 30% each year. With more than €250 million invested in telecommunications networks in five years, POST is one of the main players in the digitalisation of the Grand Duchy. In order to accelerate the deployment of ultra high-speed broadband in general, and in rural areas in particular, POST Luxembourg has decided to increase the multi-annual budget for investments in the fixed network by €50 million in 2020. Substantial investments now allow almost 73% of the population to be connected to an internet access with up to 1 Gbit/s.

As a result of the low interest rates on the financial markets and the decline in commission income, the turnover of the Finance business line fell by €3.5 million (12.8%) to €24 million euros. The new ebanking solution "eboo" found its audience during the COVID-19 crisis, which was marked by a significant increase in the use of digital tools. POST Finance's future ambition will be to combine innovation and financial inclusion for all and to continue to simplify the customer journey by adding new functionalities. The creation of the start-up I-Hub and the increase of POST's stake in LUXTRUST are part of this logic.

In addition, POST Luxembourg Group continued to invest in niche markets with growth potential and consisted of about 20 companies in 2020, divided into three main sectors of activity and numerous skills.

As the largest employer in Luxembourg, POST Luxembourg Group employed an average of 4,697 people of 50 different nationalities in 2020. The signing of the new collective labour agreement was an important moment in 2020, including the upgrading of certain careers. Another priority is the development of skills and maintaining the employability of its employees. In 2020, this ambition was reflected in the launch of the POSTalents programme, in which almost 250 employees signed up with the common objective of broadening their horizons within the Group and thus supporting their desire for development.