The state-owned New Zealand Post has delivered a slightly smaller profit as letter volumes continue to decline.
New Zealand Post's letter volumes fell by 8 percent, but parcel volumes rose 6.4 percent. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
The postal operator made $141 million in the year to the end of June, a decrease of 1.4 percent compared with the previous year.
The result included the sale of its Australian unit Converga which generated a gain of $43m.
New Zealand Post will pay a dividend of $5m to the government.
Revenue fell 6.6 percent to $1.485 billion, though that was matched by a 6.6 percent reduction of costs to $1.335bn.
"The profit is largely due to Kiwibank and the proceeds from the sale of New Zealand Post's Australian-based subsidiary Converga to Canon Australia," said New Zealand Post chief executive Brian Roche.
"Kiwibank had a good first half performance, however this was not matched in the second six months," Mr Roche said.
The postal service's traditional business continued to decline, with letter volumes falling by 8 percent.
In contrast, parcel volumes rose 6.4 percent, with inbound international parcel volumes jumping 15.5 percent.
Excluding one-offs, the postal services business made a small loss.
However, Mr Roche is upbeat about its future.
"New Zealand Post is now in the investment phase of its business strategy. It is a leaner organisation positioned for further parcel growth, with a renewed focus of putting customer choice at the forefront of decision making.
"Margin growth is difficult in challenging market conditions, but we're seeing good parcel trends, with parcel volumes growing by 6.4 percent. We will continue to actively explore market opportunities to grow our core future business in parcels," Mr Roche said.
On the banking side, Kiwibank's customer deposits rose by 7.6 percent to $14.8bn and lending increased by 7 percent to $16.7bn.
Kiwibank paid its parent a dividend of $29m.