TIRANA, May 16 – Albania’s state run postal operator, Posta Shqiptare (Albanian Post) increased its market share to 94 percent in terms of handling postal items, but its market share in terms of income dropped to 57 percent amid tough competition by ten other private operators and the development of e-communications, according to a report.
The state-run operator which runs about 560 offices nationwide and employs some 2,315 people, about three quarters of total mail workers, registered a 19 percent increase in postal items in 2016 when it handled about 24 million, increasing its market share by about 10 percent in the past five years, says a report by the electronic and postal communications authority, AKEP.
A considerable number of items handled by the Albanian Post include bills by state-run services such as electricity and water supply as well as pensions.
The Albanian Post’s income registered a turning point in 2016 when it rose to about 1.2 billion lek (€8.7 million), up 10 percent compared to 2015, allowing for a 10 percent pay rise for its workers starting May 2017. Back in 2014, the Albanian Post held a 68 percent market share with annual income of about 2 billion lek (€15 million).
The postal service market has been gradually declining in the past four years affected by the rapid development of e-communications.
Postal operators reported income of about 2 billion lek (€15.3 mln) in 2016, down from 2.8 billion lek (€21 million) in 2012 when the Albanian Post held a 65 percent market share in terms of income.
DHL International, TNT Express Albania and Ulysses Enterprises are the biggest postal private operators in the country.
“Great advancement in electronic communication represent huge challenges for postal service providers due to an increase in opportunities to replace them with electronic services which has led to a considerable decline in the number of postal items around the world,” says the postal watchdog.
“However, e-communication developments have increased demand for international package delivery. With the latest developments in broadband access and e-commerce in Albania, these global trends of postal services have also started appearing in Albania,” it adds.
The stagnation in revenue for 2016 was also affected by a mid-year government decision reducing the threshold on tax free online purchases and goods delivered from abroad to €22, down from a previous €140 in a bid to curb spending abroad. The watchdog says tariffs applied by the Albanian Post are up to 13 times lower compared to EU and regional countries.
Introducing the 2016 performance, Albanian Post director Majlind Lazimi described the modernization of services as key to responding to rising consumer needs and tougher competition.
The Albanian Post says it has undertaken a Digital Post Office project involving the establishment of an online trading platform in cooperation with the Turkish Post as well as self service offices.
The state-run operator’s mid-term goal is turning into a Postbank, a project announced since 2010 in a bid to ease household participation in government security auctions.
Many nations’ postal offices operate postal savings systems to provide depositors who don’t have access to banks a safe, a convenient method to save money and to promote saving among the poor.
