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For almost two decades after privatization at the turn of the millennium, Deutsche Post was considered boring, barely innovative and manageably successful.
In the early years, the Post still benefited from its monopoly in the mailing of letters, it was only in 2008 that there was competition in the most important area.
But in the year of the corona pandemic, interest in the Bonn company almost exploded.
The share price has doubled and the business figures are increasing rapidly.
There are seven main reasons for the comeback - but also a risk.
The most important reason for success in domestic business is parcel shipping.
Swiss Post delivered around 1.6 billion parcels to front doors last year, 15 percent more than in the previous year.
Working in the home office and the business closings due to the pandemic have turned Germans into online buyers.
In contrast, the volume in letter mail has fallen in the mid-single-digit percentage range.
Nevertheless, the pre-tax profit in the parcel and letter business improved significantly by 29 percent to 1.6 billion euros and the profit margin from eight to ten percent.
This also has an impact on employment.
There were around 20,000 new hires in the postal group worldwide in 2020, of which around 8,000 new jobs were in Germany.
The group is the employer for around 570,000 men and women in 220 countries and territories.
Last year, Swiss Post paid a total of 3.7 billion euros in taxes and social security contributions.
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Even if that does not please the letter writers: Swiss Post benefits from the fact that the current postage rate of 80 cents was last secured by the federal government in retrospect in the new postal law.
And what's more: the next increase could follow as early as the beginning of 2022.
Swiss Post is currently transmitting figures for mailing letters to the responsible Federal Network Agency.
It deals, for example, with rising costs after the latest wage increase of three percent at the beginning of the year, as well as higher energy costs, for example for petrol in the vehicle fleet.
"We expect that such cost increases will be taken into account by the network agency," said Post Board Member Tobias Meyer when presenting the annual figures.
The authority will decide by autumn how high the postage increase may be.
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One consolation remains: According to the statement, “no short-term price changes” are planned for the packages.
This year, the Post will also benefit from nine elections in the federal states and the Bundestag election, namely from sending notifications and voting by post.
Soon 20,000 street scooters in use
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Post subsidiary DHL plays a key role in the global supply of Covid-19 vaccines.
In Germany, DHL has so far been responsible for delivering sensitive pharmaceutical products to Baden-Württemberg and Lower Saxony.
Internationally, countries like Japan have so far opted for DHL.
Swiss Post wants to vaccinate its employees around the world as soon as the vaccine is available and the states grant permission for it.
Even if the specialty area of pharmaceutical logistics does not bring abundant profits, its reputation as a functioning supplier of what is probably the most sought-after goods of these months is increasing.
In terms of e-mobility, Swiss Post can look forward to a spectacular success.
The in-house development, including the production of the street scooter, an old-fashioned-looking delivery van with an electric drive, should be completed in the course of this year according to the earlier plans of the Post Office Board.
This is justified by the fact that the postal company does not want to be a car manufacturer.
The plant in Düren in North Rhine-Westphalia is still producing the vehicle, but at the end of the day, the Post plans to have around 20,000 street scooters in use.
According to Swiss Post, this is more than all of the European postal companies put together with e-vans on the streets.
But now there are four prospective buyers - two industrial manufacturers from China, one investor group from the USA and one investor from Germany.
The Post only says that it does not rule out the sale of the street scooter production and is open to "serious offers".
A bidding competition and a billion-euro deal may now come about.
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The group earns most of its money with the comparatively expensive express shipments in the international mail order business.
Almost half of the total profit comes from express shipping with around 2.8 billion euros.
Worldwide only the competitor United Parcel Service is even more profitable.
The trend will continue, as the Post recently used the profit to finance a further eleven cargo planes.
In contrast to previous years, those who have their own transport capacities are now considered to have a promising future in logistics.
Amazon is also going exactly this way with the transport department.
Around half of the world's air freight is flown in the cargo hold of passenger aircraft.
However, since this tactic has broken down due to the pandemic, only transport companies with their own capacities have recently been able to accept orders at all.
Thanks to the high profits, Swiss Post keeps its shareholders, including the German state, happy.
Through the KfW banking group, the Federal Republic has around a fifth of the shares in the former state monopoly.
This currently corresponds to a value of around eleven billion euros.
Now the Post Board wants to raise the dividend for 2020 to 1.35 euros, compared to 1.15 euros the year before.
Manager poached from the competition
This means that the group will pay out around 1.7 billion euros to investors, which is almost half of the annual profit.
340 million euros of this will go to the federal government.
By the year 2023, the group profit is to rise to six billion euros, is the new forecast.
The share price rose to an annual high of a good 44 euros even after the business figures were published.
Swiss Post has also turned the corner in an earlier problem area.
In addition to delivering letters and parcels, the group is one of the leading companies in air freight and sea transport alongside Kuehne + Nagel.
Despite the decline in demand during the pandemic, there was an improvement in earnings.
The profit margin is four percent and thus behind the rival from Switzerland, but above the industry average.
One reason for this is undoubtedly the poaching of Tim Scharwath, who moved from the Kuehne + Nagel Management Board to the Post three years ago.
But there is also a risk and that even comes from your own customers.
Amazon is one of the most important large customers with a share of two percent in the group turnover of the Post - that is after all 1.2 billion euros.
In Germany, this share of sales is six percent.
In parallel to the mail order business with Swiss Post, the online retailer is setting up its own delivery organization.
Great Britain, the largest European market for online shopping, is a role model: Amazon is already delivering every second parcel itself.
The US group works with subcontractors and is the price leader in the delivery business in terms of costs per delivery.
The online retailer will also use this feature in Germany - and could even offer its delivery service to other retailers in the end.
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