Post closes almost 200 of its own branches and wants to grow in the online business: this is how the administration transforms the company

Swiss Post will present its strategy for the future on May 14.

Keystone

Swiss Post is in higher demand than ever. In April alone, it processed 17 million packages, significantly more than last year before Christmas. But Swiss Post needs a new long-term strategy. Mail volume is constantly decreasing and the parcel business is marginal. On Thursday, Swiss Post directed its thoughts on how it plans to restructure the company.

It’s about this:

• Swiss Post is adopting a new strategy for the years 2021 to 2024.
• A new approach is the secure communication of digital data.
• “As a company, Swiss Post should grow again,” says Urs Schwaller, chairman of the board of directors.

These are the pillars of the new strategy:

• The branch network will stabilize at around 800 branches operated by the company itself. This target value has already been specified in the previous strategy. At the end of 2019, Swiss Post had 981 branches of its own. Therefore, the number of our own branches is significantly reduced.
• The PostMail (commercial mail) and PostLogistics (parcels) divisions are combined. “This is the largest restructuring of the corporate structure in the past 20 years,” says Schwaller.
• Swiss Post wants to continue investing in neighboring countries if necessary to do business in Switzerland, says Schwaller.
• PostBus should continue to be number 1 in public road transport, in all regions.
• For financial subsidiary Postfinance, management continues to push for the credit and mortgage ban to be lifted.
• Swiss Post plans to invest 3 billion Swiss francs by 2024.
• Employee work is safe, said postmaster Roberto Cirillo. There will be new jobs in other areas. At the same time, there will be a big wave of retirement in the years to come.

This means the strategy for post offices:

• “Branches and access points remain a central pillar of the Swiss Post,” says CEO Cirillo.
• Swiss Post opens its network to authorities and service providers. Branches should be able to use them to reach their customers.
• Post dependency on letters will be reduced, the focus is shifting to parcel and freight logistics.

Swiss Post plans to do this with new communication services:

• Swiss Post wants to support private clients and SMEs on their way to digitization.
• It wants to offer secure data communication, not only for individuals and companies, but also for healthcare providers.
• Swiss Post wants to offer safer online solutions for authorities.

This means the strategy for logistics:

• The mail and parcel business is merged into the new “Logistics Services” division and is given new management.
• Swiss Post plans to increase its packages in its online shopping business.

The crown crisis has to do with the new strategy:

• The consequences of the crown crisis are great and long-lasting, says postmaster Roberto Cirillo.
• The postmaster says that digitization will be accelerated again by the crisis. The Post had to react to this.