Omniva: The sharp decline in traditional mail is forcing us to strengthen our position in international small shipments

11.09.2024 16:20

The sales revenue of the Omniva group for the first half of the year was 65.8 million euros, increasing by 4% compared to the same period last year.

In the first six months of the year, Omniva delivered more than 16 million parcels in the Baltic states – 8% more than in the same period last year. The biggest increase was in Latvia, where the company delivered 12% more parcels than during the same time in 2023. In Lithuania, the increase was 8%, and in Estonia, 4%.

While parcel volumes continue to rise in line with the growth in e-commerce, volumes of traditional postal services are, as expected, on the decline – the volume of domestic letters is down by 8% compared to the same period last year, and the volume of direct mail is also down by 8%. Starting From April 2023, Omniva gradually started early-morning newspaper delivery in the major cities of Estonia, which has resulted in an increase in the volume of periodicals delivered by nearly 50% compared to the same period last year. The market volumes of the delivery of periodicals have decreased by 4% year on year, mainly affected by the discontinuation of the paper editions of Eesti Päevaleht and Pealinn in the second quarter.

The international transit volumes of Omniva grew by 28% in the first half of the year, supported by good cooperation and integrations with major new international sales platforms.

In the first half of 2024, 42% of the sales revenue came from customers in Estonia, 15% from Lithuania, 11% from Latvia, and 32 per cent from other countries. The universal postal service accounted for 7 per cent of the turnover.

The operating loss of the group was 0.7 million euros and the net loss was 0.7 million euros. The net loss increased by 0.2 million euros compared to the same period last year. The increase in the loss was influenced by the loss from the provision of the universal postal service – 1.3 million euros –, which increased by 0.2 million euros in the first half of the year compared to the previous year. As a positive effect, the group made a profit of 1.1 million euros on the sale of the property on Toompuiestee Street, Tallinn, in the first half of the year. As a result of the implementation of operational efficiency measures in the first half of the year, the group recorded one-off redundancy costs of 0.6 million euros.

According to Mart Mägi, Chairman of Omniva’s Management Board, Omniva has been able to adapt to the changes despite the ongoing economic downturn and increased competition. “We began to streamline our operations and processes at the beginning of the year and will continue to do so in all Baltic states in the second half of the year. The sharp decline in traditional mail and periodicals services is forcing us to seek and strengthen our positions in the transit of international small shipments. The opening of the Kaunas logistics centre in September should provide a significant boost to efficiency and our international business, bringing us significantly closer to our strategically important foreign markets.”

Commenting on the growth of international business, Mägi added that it forms an important part of the operations of Omniva group, supporting the company’s overall performance in terms of both revenue and profit. In the first half of the year, the customer base was actively expanded and the new Central Asia region was added.

Omniva’s key activities in the second quarter Picapac, part of the Omniva group and a private parcel machine operator, launched new community parcel machines with eight sections in Estonia in April, designed to serve smaller communities and locations where large parcel machines are not conveniently located.

In June, Omniva was ranked silver in this year’s Responsible Business Index for medium-sized and larger companies. This is a significant result for the company, as for the first time, Omniva’s performance was measured on a group-wide basis, i.e. in all three Baltic states.

The first phase of the construction of Omniva’s new automated logistics centre in Kaunas has been completed and the first employees started working in the offices in early June. The most modern logistics centre in the Baltics, which will be fully operational in September, will cover more than 21,000 m² and will have an office with 120 workstations.
The consolidated interim report for the second quarter of 2024 has been published on the website of Omniva.

Omniva (AS Eesti Post) is a company owned by the Estonian state, the main activity of which is the provision of logistics services (parcel and postal services), digital services, and international transit services. The main activity of SIA Omniva and UAB Omniva LT is the provision of parcel machine and courier services in the Latvian and Lithuanian markets, respectively. UAB Omniva LT Sorting was established for the construction of a new logistics centre in Kaunas. The main activity of OÜ Picapac is the development of technological solutions for parcel machines and the provision of personalised parcel services. The main activity of OÜ Finbite is the provision of information business services (e-invoices).