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Post office on track for a loss

Neither sleet nor rain should stop the mail but the internet and cut-price stamps are threatening to pull down Australia Post.

Revealing yesterday it is on track to deliver its first annual loss after a further collapse in letters, the mail carrier will open its offices on Saturdays through Christmas in a bid to turn around its bottom line.

Australia Post managing director Ahmed Fahour said that in the past year traditional letter numbers have fallen by 8 per cent.

In the past six years, total letter numbers have collapsed, delivering Australia Post a near $1 billion loss. Since peaking in 2008, letter numbers have fallen 1.2 billion. Only strong profits from its parcel division have helped keep the company in the black, recording a full year profit after tax of $116.2 million. It was a drop in profit of 34.5 per cent over the previous year.

In the past six months a loss of $106 million was recorded which is the first since Australia Post was corporatised in 1989. So quickly was traditional mail declining that this year would be the last that Australian Post would deliver a profit.