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AN POST DELIVERED double the amount of parcels in 2020 than the previous year, as lockdown saw Irish people increase the amount of online shopping they were doing.
Ireland’s postal service has released its figures for last year, which show that its revenue increased by 3% from the previous year.
However, it still saw an overall loss of €10 million.
An Post took in €916 million last year, compared to €892 million in 2019. The increase in revenue was slightly offset by a decline in the number of letters sent. 7% fewer letters were sent in 2020.
The pandemic “adversely impacted” figures by over €50 million, An Post said, due to the cost of PPE and replacement staff, as well as reduced post office transactions and a postponed price increase.
The service’s balance sheet remains strong, however, with €81 million in unrestricted cash at year end.
An Post’s revenues for the first quarter of 2021 were up 11% on the same period last year, with parcel volumes remaining high and letter volumes recovering. It is expected that profits will return to pre-pandemic levels as the business normalises and the price increase is introduced.
David McRedmond, An Post CEO said in a press statement: “2020 for An Post was all about being a public service. Unlike many postal services in Europe we kept both our networks fully operational throughout the pandemic.”
“While the costs from Covid were a major hit on the organisation, An Post’s strong financial recovery in the previous few years meant the costs could be fully funded from our balance sheet”, he said.
An Post has also announced its Green Light Programme, its strategy for the next five years. The programme will see increased profitability, An Post said, as well as a “transformed and sustainable” post office network.
The service also plans to develop a “market-leading” digital platform for easy, accessible e-commerce.
An Post launched a number of initiatives during the pandemic, including sending letters to and from nursing homes for free when visits were not allowed during lockdown.
Earlier this year, An Post sent two free postcards to every household in the country for the second time during the pandemic.
A similar initiative took place at the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
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If I hear anyone else say “life style choice” in relation to social welfare, I swear to God I wont be responsible!!!
The other thing that I m tired of hearing is “we need to reduce social welfare to motivate people to go back to work” Our TDs receive over €2500 pay per week, plus expenses, free transport etc and they are spending their time on how to cut child welfare by €10 and the dole by €8. Those who profit most from Irelands wealth are mostly tax exiles and pay nothing at all …is something wrong here?? Should we not be “motivating” those who earn €1 million plus to be paying their fair share?
I “live” on Social Welfare. Yes you could say it is a “lifestyle choice”. I have cardiac artery disease, diabetes and arthritis, and am on Disability Allowance. I get the same amount to exist on as someone trying to find a job. It is not a lot. In fact it is not enough. Do our T.D.s know or care? I think not. Would they do anything if they did know?
NO! Because they are not concerned about how ordinary people get by.
Oh Sugar !!
this country has thee most disconected politicians in relation to real life and how we cope and live with the decisions they make.
living on social welfare is a great lifestyle choice, i do it all the time :-P
It is an absolute disgrace what happened to Fr Kevin Reynolds and I am happy for him that his name was cleared. Why the hell won’t Dev jnr respect this mans wishes and those of Fr. Reynolds legal team?
Before cutting social welfare for single mothers, can we please first have a National plan to provide community childcare to every family? Community Childcare workers do a great job but when they have to be closed during school holidays, what’s the point?
Believe it or not, not every child in this country has a granny who can take over during school holidays.
Am I the only person who thinks the defamation by autocomplete thing is stupid? It would be like punishing a news reporter for reporting the news. It happened and people were looking up the recievership online to find out information about it so google took a popular term being used and suggested it as a search item. Google simpley did what it’s supposed to do, help people find information online in a quick manner by streamlining what is relevent to what people wanted at that time.
If the term “receivership” is now considered pejorative then google in Ireland had better beware, as the number of businesses in that situation is more likely to grow than shrink.
have your say