Strong growth in the parcels line of business has helped the Canada Post segment to a pre-tax profit of C$55m (US$40m) for 2016.
Parcels revenue has grown US$379m (C$521m) since 2011, signifying Canada Post’s increased work with the e-commerce sector as part of its growth strategy.
In 2016, parcel revenue was up 5.6% compared to the previous year and volume increased by 14 million items, up 7.8%. The corporation delivered a million parcels on 34 separate days in 2016, and 1.52 million parcels on December 5.
With declining mail volumes, less than half of the segment’s revenue last year was generated by transaction mail such as letters, bills and statements. Volume fell by 7.8%, or 286 million items, compared to 2015, and revenue in this segment fell by 4.8% against 2015.
In 2016, Canadians mailed 1.8 billion fewer piece of domestic letter mail, equivalent to 37%, than they did in 2006, continuing the sector’s decade-long decline.
Canada Post considers the year-end results a positive sign considering the challenges facing the organization. In addition to declining mail volumes, it also has significant pension obligations, labor costs and the need to invest in network capacity to keep up with growing parcel volumes.
May 4, 2017