Fahour leaves government-owned firm is style as Corbett hails e-commerce move
Ahmed Fahour’s can look back on his departure as Australia Post boss fondly as the government enterprise reports a full-year profit before tax of $126.1 million, up 307 per cent from last year’s $41 million.
Past the headlines about his $10 million farewell, Fahour’s final financial year at the helm saw revenue up 3.7 per cent to $6.8 billion.
Parcels profit before tax increased by 4.8 per cent to $299.7 million.
Acting managing director and group CEO Christine Corbett emphasises this result demonstrates the shift to becoming a major e-commerce player is paying dividends – a development Fahour has led.
“Our parcels business has experienced a strong year with 4.8 per cent revenue growth and an increase in volume delivered across the domestic and international network,” Corbett says.
“Last Christmas, we had our largest ever parcel delivery day, with more than two million parcels delivered in a single day, and we’ve continued to experience strong growth throughout what is traditionally a quieter second half.
“With new entrants to the market contributing to overall growth in e-commerce volumes, we expect our parcels business to continue to grow, allowing for reinvestment in customer initiatives like MyPost, parcel lockers and digital trusted services.
“A pleasing highlight this year was an increased ‘Net Promoter Score’ for customer engagement and we recently signed a new three-year enterprise agreement strongly supported by our large award workforce.
“The letters business still presents a significant challenge, with our largest ever 12 month volume decline experienced this year.
“We need to continue to ensure this business is sustainable, while managing the declining foot traffic in post offices, and we are speaking with the community on how they may use the letters service in the future.”