The same sex-marriage survey has provided a one-off boost to Australia Post’s traditional business, which continues to be hit by a decline in “snail mail” letter volumes.

Australia Post says without the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey creating a $26.3 million revenue surge late last year, a 10 per cent fall in traditional letter volumes would have been “even sharper”.

But chief executive Christine Holgate – who took over last year from Ahmed Fahour – has warned that despite the boost from the vote and $113 million in savings, she expects Australia Post to swing back into loss in the second half of the year.

“Due to the strong seasonal nature of our business, we expect to again make a loss in the second half,” Ms Holgate said.

The results demonstrate the significant challenge for Australia Post to continue to transform.”

In its half-year results to December 31 released today, Australia Post said addressed letter volumes had fallen more than 26 per cent in the past three years as large organisations continue to move their communications online.

Australia’s Post has reported a 65 per cent improvement in half year profit after tax of $217 million helped by property sales and one-off benefits.

An 8 per cent increase on its parcels business has seen revenues increase by 3 per cent to $3.6 billion.

New revenue sources

Australia Post is continuing to struggle with maintaining its traditional bricks and mortar portfolio of post offices while transforming into a parcels business.

“It is critical for Australia Post to continue to meet the needs of Australians by maintaining a healthy and viable Post Office network, including our licensed Post Office partners,” Ms Holgate said.

“We are currently working to find new revenue streams for our Post Offices, as their role in communities becomes increasingly important to serve an ageing population and with traditional services closing branches.”

Snail mail is still declining: Christine Holgate Photo: ABC

Australia Post has an obligation to provide a service that is “reasonably accessible to all people in Australia, wherever they reside or carry on business.”

In today’s report, Australia Post said it has 15,160 street post boxes; 4369 post offices nationwide including 2,541 post offices in regional and remote areas.

Ms Holgate pointed to strong growth from Asia with inbound parcel volumes up by 45 per cent in the period, with most of the growth coming from China.

She said almost two-thirds of Australia Post’s revenue coming from competitive markets but highlighted concerns about its share in the deliveries business with trading flat with growth of just 1 per cent.

-ABC