More parcels, fewer letters: pandemic dents Swiss Post finances

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Far more people ordered goods by parcel during the pandemic. © Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

The Covid-19 pandemic cost the state-owned Swiss postal service CHF139 million ($150 million) last year, which was largely responsible for driving down profits by 30%.

Swiss Post delivered a record 182.7 million parcels in 2020, up nearly a quarter in volume from the previous year. But the number of letters being posted declined by 5.6%.

The pandemic also negatively impacted the annual results of the organisation’s banking division, Postfinance, which saw profits plummet by a third. This was blamed largely on fewer people using ATMs in Switzerland or credit cards abroad, plus the burden of negative interest rate charges.

For 2020, Swiss Post recorded a profit of CHF178 million – some CHF77 million less than 2019 – the group announced on Thursday.

Swiss Post chairman Urs Schwaller, 68, also announced he would step down from his role on December 1.

About Swissinfo

SWI swissinfo.ch – the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Since 1999, swissinfo.ch has fulfilled the federal government’s mandate to distribute information about Switzerland internationally, supplementing the online offerings of the radio and television stations of the SBC. Today, the international service is directed above all at an international audience interested in Switzerland, as well as at Swiss citizens living abroad.

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