An Post lost more than €38 million after tax and depreciation in 2021, with Brexit and the pandemic continuing to add to the State postal company’s cost base. The result followed an €18 million loss in 2020, but the company expects to return to growth and profit in the second half of this year.
In its annual report for 2021, published on Thursday at the company’s annual general meeting, An Post said new European Union customs rules brought in last year were “exponentially complicated” by Britain’s withdrawal from the EU at the start of 2022, heaping costs on the business.
Postal trade with Britain fell by 58 per cent when the new regulations came into force in July 2021. An Post chief executive David McRedmond blamed the UK Post Office’s “abject failure to implement new export rules into the EU” for a collapse in over-the-counter trade with the UK last year.
“At very considerable cost, An Post rapidly developed the infrastructure and systems to manage the complex new digital documentation required to enable the inflow of parcels from outside the EU and to assist customers in overcoming large initial disruption — all funded by An Post resources,” it said.
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The “digital innovations” developed to deal with the disruption “will be a significant” asset to the company, An Post said.
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Covid-related costs also continued to mount for An Post in 2021. It said the pandemic had “adversely affected” the company’s results to the tune of more than €100 million over the first two years of the pandemic, due to personal protective equipment costs, staff costs and “vastly reduced” post office transactions.
A planned stamp price increase, postponed in 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic, had also had a negative impact, An Post said.
An Post’s revenues were also down from almost €916 million in 2020 to €890 million last year, although the company described the 2021 figure as “satisfactory”, given the disruption of the pandemic and the customs rules changes. The company also said its ecommerce revenues had grown 100 per cent since 2019, which is compensating for its ever-decreasing revenues from letters.
Mr McRedmond said the “geopolitical events of the past couple of years” have shaped the company.
“Our focus now post-pandemic is to move back into profitable growth,” he said. “While the pandemic is largely behind us, the impact of Brexit remains profound... An Post continues to work tirelessly to help Irish consumers navigate the more complex trading rules globally.”
Peter Quinn, An Post’s chief financial officer, said: “As we move into 2022, we expect to return to growth and profit, especially in the second half of the year. The inflation in energy costs and recovery from the pandemic as well as the new EU customs rules and Brexit, have required An Post to increase prices, but our commitment to the State and its citizens is undiminished.
“We will rebuild the company’s reserves for ongoing investment, future crises and events. The investments we made in An Post’s transformation over the past five years proved invaluable through the pandemic, and ensure a solid infrastructure for the years ahead.”
