Revenue growth in the postal services market

In the last quarter of 2021, the postal services market in the Republic of Croatia recorded the highest revenue in one quarter, resulting in a nine percent growth year-on- year.

ZAGREB, March 8, 2022,- Taking into consideration the trends over  the past few years  on the postal services market in the Republic of Croatia, the growth in the fourth quarter of 2021 was expected in all market segments compared to the previous quarter in the same year. A total of 68.5 million postal services was realized, which is a 6.8 % growth compared to  the previous quarter, but also a 5%  decline compared to the  same period in the previous year, due to the pandemic has still been affecting the service performance.

In comparison with the third quarter, the increase in the total number of services is the result of an increase in all types of postal items (letters, parcels, stationery), where parcel services have been in a constant growth in the past few quarters. The share of universal service in the overall market has been the lowest so far, amounting to just over 50%.
In addition to the pandemic, in the fourth quarter of the year, the international traffic was heavily affected by the new EU legislative framework on the abolition of VAT exemptions for imports of goods in low value consignments not exceeding 22 EUR from non-EU countries. Therefore, compared to the same period of the previous year, the number of services decreased by more than one third, i.e. 35.7%.

In the fourth quarter of 2021 market revenues amounted to HRK 544.5 million and the highest revenue was generated in one quarter, since market monitoring had been applied. The revenues increased by 7.8 % compared to the previous year, or 14.7 %growth compared to the previous quarter. Reason for revenue growth is an increase of parcel services, and partly an increase in the number of other postal services performed with one of the added values. On an annual basis, revenues in 2021 amounted to around HRK 1.975 billion, which is about 9% rise compared to the 2020.

At the end of last year, there were 25 service providers in the market, the largest being HP-Hrvatska Pošta d.d. with a share of 87.2 % of the services performed and 55.2 % of the total revenues. For more information on the postal services market data from the third quarter please see the website of the Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries (HAKOM) via the following link.