To try to compensate for the clear loss of speed in its mail delivery activity, La Poste plans to massively develop this new service over the next ten years.
Traditional mail is struggling. In 15 years, three times fewer letters have been sent. Currently, 17% of La Poste’s turnover comes from mail, while it represented 70% in 1990. Worse, this level is expected to fall further in the months to come, reaching 15% at the end of 2024. An observation that pushed La Poste to reinvent itself and find new financing solutions by exploring other markets.
“The peak in volume, in number of letters, was in 2008 with 18 billion letters. Last year, we delivered six billion letters and in our projections, we will still be around three billion letters at the end of the decade” indicated Philippe Dorge, deputy general director of La Poste to France Info last January. So, to become less dependent on its mail activity, La Poste must now innovate. This is why, little by little, she will devote herself to a completely new activity.
This is home meal delivery. This new feature will be an integral part of La Poste’s strategy for the next decade. If the group is today driven by parcel delivery and financial services with Banque Postale, its general director Philippe Wahl regretted this Wednesday, April 10, during his hearing by the Senate Finance Committee the plummeting of its shipping activity. mail in less than 25 years.
So, could meal delivery allow La Poste to regain momentum? Today, La Poste delivers more than 15,000 meals per day. And in 2023, the group has delivered 5 million. From this year, he intends to double the turnover from this new activity. By 2025, no less than 65,000 postmen will be responsible for meal delivery as their main activity. As indicated by France Info, “this service is provided in partnership with municipal social action centers (CCAS), hospitals and specialized restaurateurs”. The operation is mainly geared towards seniors.
“Our model is pooling. To have postmen who deliver both Colissimo and, in addition and in a complementary manner, new local services. It is this model of multi-activity, multi-business which will shape the future of the postman profession” assures Philippe Dorge in the columns of France Info. If the Court of Auditors welcomed the reforms undertaken by La Poste in a report published last May, for it it does not yet constitute “a lasting solution”.