Ahmed Fahour will leave Australia Post on something of a high as his efforts to turn around the government-owned enterprise showed signs of some success.
Ahmed Fahour will leave Australia Post on something of a high as his efforts to turn around the government-owned enterprise showed signs of some success.
Fahour, the firm’s MD and group CEO, is quoted by the Herald-Sun as saying it was his choice and that “seven years is a long time” when the average period for a CEO in Australia is three years.
His departure comes a week after a media storm and political criticism of his $5.6 million salary after it was revealed in the Senate.
That might end up being a historical sidenote if the turnaround he has headed continues to improve the bottom line.
Though it is not a listed firm, Australia Post does report interim and full-year financial performances.
Its first half profit after tax rose by eight times to $131 million from $16 million in the previous first half, with revenues up 8.2 per cent to $3.5 billion.
Group profit before tax up from last year’s result of $1 million to $197 million.
Parcel profit was up 16 per cent to $189 million.
According to Fahour, the result demonstrated the strategy the business embarked on has returned Australia Post to sustainability, with the transformation to a parcels and ecommerce-centric business taking hold.
“Today over 70 per cent of our revenue and 100 per cent of our profit is derived from commercial activities in parcels and ecommerce,” Fahour says.
“This is one of the strongest first half results in recent history and it demonstrates that we are on the right path to ensuring the future of Australia Post for our people, the community and our important stakeholders.
“We are delivering more parcels than ever before, with domestic parcel volumes up 5 per cent in the first half, market share increasing and at the same time we’re trialling new delivery innovations like evening and weekend deliveries to give our customers an even better experience.
“On top of the investment in new parcel sorting machines last year, in the past six months we have installed new automated sorting machines at our major letter facilities and launched a new air freight domestic parcels network.
“We are also responding to global competitors entering the local market by investing in the future.
“Last year we made a strategic investment in global parcels/ecommerce giant Aramex and we are already reaping rewards in growing our inbound and outbound parcel volumes.”