Foreword

Foreword by Peter Hasler, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Susanne Ruoff, CEO

Dear Reader

In a mobile and highly networked society, people are used to accessing information, ordering goods and using services whenever and wherever they want. This trend is affecting Swiss Post too: demand for traditional postal services is falling. People have been sending fewer and fewer physical consignments for some years now, and they are also increasingly using channels other than the post office for payments. Given our customers' new requirements, our range of services needs to be developed in a flexible manner. At the same time, increasing digitization is opening up many new opportunities in our business units. Guided by this new customer behaviour and our expertise within communication, logistics, passenger transport and financial services, we are developing system solutions and services at the interface between the physical and the digital – as a one-stop shop. This makes things as easy as possible for customers.

In the coming years, we intend to focus on six business development areas, expanding our range of services to meet customer requirements, maintaining high levels of quality and improving efficiency. Last year, we invested 443 million francs in these efforts: we installed an additional ultra-modern sorting system in the existing building at the Härkingen parcel center, ordered 20,500 new scanners for our logistics staff and procured additional sorting machines capable of sorting mail automatically according to each mail carrier's delivery round. To make e-banking even easier, PostFinance has invested in its e-finance platform. With the newly-founded subsidiary TWINT AG, PostFinance is also looking to develop innovative digital payment solutions and bring them to market quickly. You will find more information on our current developments and investments elsewhere in this Annual Report.

Swiss Post is in good shape with solid foundations and is well equipped to meet the challenges of the future. To ensure that we can finance our investment in the future ourselves and provide an excellent universal service, Swiss Post must generate a profit (EBIT) of at least 700 million francs each year. This is the only way to ensure that Swiss Post remains competitive, and to secure its long-term success.

What we have achieved in the past year has only been possible through the confidence of our customers. For that we offer our sincere thanks. On behalf of the Board of Directors and the Executive Board, we would also like to say a big thank you to all of Swiss Post's managers and employees for this good result. We appreciate their enthusiasm and passion for their work and are counting on their continued commitment in the coming year.

 

Peter Hasler	Susanne Ruoff
Chairman of the Board of Directors	CEO