- Geopost achieved a 1.3% increase [1] in revenue during the first half of 2024. Of note, parcel volumes grew by 2.6%, with more than 1 billion parcels delivered worldwide.
- Three key strategic drivers have been fuelling Geopost’s growth: out-of-home deliveries (+25% in volume), international deliveries (+10% in volume) and food deliveries (+7% in volume).
- Geopost continues to make progress on its sustainability agenda, with a steady reduction (-7.8% as of Q1 2024, compared to Q1 2023 [2]) of its carbon emissions in absolute terms within the SBTi scope, despite volume growth.
Yves Delmas, CEO of Geopost, said:
"In the face of a challenging and unpredictable environment, we are encouraged by our first-half results, which demonstrate Geopost's resilience and drive to deliver quality services to consumers and businesses in all markets. Food, international and out-of-home deliveries, three high growth areas that are pivotal in our “Together & Beyond” strategy, have delivered strong results. In parallel, we continue to actively implement our sustainability strategy, as evidenced by the 7,8% reduction in our GHG emissions by the end of March 2024. All in all, as we in a complex and competitive market environment, our solid results validate our long-term “Together & Beyond” strategy.”
Positive growth momentum in a still uncertain environment
The first half of 2024 remained challenging for the industry, which is still impacted by macroeconomic tensions, delayed impacts of inflation on cost of workforce in recent years, and the political context in Europe and around the world. This adverse environment has continued to affect household spending and consumption habits across Europe. Indeed, the decline in e-commerce slowed in Q1 2024, but remains persistent, particularly in France (-1,5% in sales), in Germany (-3% in sales) and in the UK (-5% in sales)[3].
In addition, the adverse conditions have contributed to the compression of our margins and have therefore affected our financial performance.
Despite these challenges and an increasingly competitive market, Geopost achieved a 1.3% increase in revenue while volumes in the first half of the year grew by 2.6% compared to last year.
Geopost's operating profit was €331 million, an increase of €256 million compared to S1 2023. Geopost's operating profit was impacted by the following non-recurring items:
- as of 30th June 2023, the provisioning relating to the legal proceedings at its Italian subsidiary of -€162 million, the impairment of Stuart's assets of -€134 million,
- as of 30th of June 2024, of +60 million euros, resulting in particular from an inter-branch internal disposal and adjustments of past non-recurring items.
Excluding change of perimeter, exchange rate effect, and non-recurring items, Geopost’s operating profit decreased by €112 million, reflecting the unfavourable macro-economic environment.
Further development in “Together & Beyond” strategic areas
Geopost has shown resilience, successfully capitalising on fast-growing segments and efficiently implementing the Group's “Together & Beyond” strategy: out-of-home, international and food.
Geopost and its commercial brands DPD, Chronopost (France), BRT (Italy), SEUR (Spain) and Speedy (Bulgaria) have significantly strengthened their presence in out-of-home deliveries in Europe, a segment that has grown steadily in recent months due to increasing consumer demand, as revealed by our recent e-shopper barometers. In the first half of 2024 alone, out-of-home deliveries increased by 25% in volume. Geopost has developed one of the densest and most extensive out-of-home networks on the market, with 115,000 parcel shops and lockers. in Europe, particularly in France (19,000 points), Spain (7,000 points), Italy (9,000 points with Fermopoint), Germany (8,000 points), the UK (11,000 points). As lockers are also growing fast in Europe, Geopost is accelerating its locker strategy and offers now almost 25,000 lockers (10,000 more than by June 2023). The share of lockers will continue to grow in the coming years.
Significant progress was also made in food and international deliveries.
During the first semester 2024, Geopost continued to accelerate the expansion of its intra Europe activities, with a 9% growth in volume compared to end of June 2023. This growth has notably been driven by out-of-home deliveries: over the first six months of 2024, Geopost cross-border out-of-home deliveries grew by 73% compared to 2023.
Food deliveries also continue to show strong value growth, with a 7% increase in volume. The increase reaches almost 21% on the specific active temperature-controlled transport field. To date, seven business units of Geopost network can offer a temperature-controlled expertise: BRT in Italy, Chronofresh in France, DPD Belux, DPD Lithuania, DPD Poland, DPD Portugal and SEUR in Spain.
Continuously decreasing the carbon footprint
In 2023, Geopost consolidated its position as a reference in sustainable delivery, by becoming the first global parcel delivery company to have its “Net Zero emissions by 2040” trajectory approved by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
Among the initiatives contributing to this ambition, Geopost further accelerated in the first semester of 2024 the gradual transformation of its vehicle fleets. To date, more than 9,300 low-emission vehicles (electric, biogas vehicles and cargo bikes) have been deployed across Europe, and 126 European cities are already served by 100% low-emission vehicles. With already more than 30% of their delivery fleet being electric, DPD UK and DPD Hungary are at the forefront of the decarbonisation plan. The decarbonisation effort also extends to long-distance transport, with 16.6% of the total kilometres driven using alternative energy (electric and biofuel/HVO) in Q1 2024.
In total, Geopost has reduced its carbon emissions within the SBTi perimeter by 7.8% in absolute terms in the first quarter of 2024, equivalent to a reduction of 9.7% per parcel.
Across Europe, we are also making progress with investments that are driven by the highest standards in sustainability. DPD Portugal’s newly inaugurated hub, representing a €25 million investment and 12,000m2, is certified BREEAM[4] Excellent, a label which recognizes the superior environmental performance of the site.
In France, Pickup has launched this year innovative solar panel equipped lockers, easier to install and more energy-efficient as they do not require any electricity supply.
[1] Asendia’s revenue and operating income included. In June 2024, Geopost has officially become a shareholder of Asendia Group, alongside Swiss Post
[2] This figure is not final as it is still subject to third party verification.
It covers the scope of our net zero commitment approved by the SBTi: BRT (Italy), Chronopost (France), DPD Belux, DPD Croatia, DPD Czech Republic, DPD Estonia, DPD France DPD Germany, DPD Hungary, DPD Ireland, DPD Latvia, DPD Lithuania, DPD Netherlands, DPD Poland, DPD Portugal, DPD Slovakia, DPD Slovenia, DPD Switzerland, DPD UK, SEUR (Spain)
[3] Sources: Fevad (France), IMRG (UK), BEVH (Germany)
[4] BREEAM is a world-leading sustainability assessment method for the built environment and infrastructure. Project owners around the world rely on BREEAM to achieve their sustainability goals and improve the performance of their assets. The BREEAM framework is used to assess whole life performance, from new build projects to refurbishment and fit-out.
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About Geopost
Geopost, a European leader in parcel delivery and solutions for e-commerce, operates in more than 50 countries across all continents through its network of expert delivery brands, including: DPD, Chronopost, SEUR, BRT, Speedy and Jadlog. Leveraging its industry-specific expertise, Geopost is further growing the development of Out-Of-Home delivery services with Pickup, the densest parcel shop and locker network in Europe and is also expanding temperature-controlled solutions for food and healthcare business. In a world of acceleration and transformation, Geopost engages and embraces new e-commerce territories with ESW via Asendia, epicery and Pourdebon.com.
With 57,000 employees, Geopost endeavours to make commerce more convenient, profitable and sustainable for their customers and communities. Committed to becoming an international reference in sustainable delivery, Geopost is the first global delivery company to have its roadmap to Net Zero by 2040 approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
Part of La Poste groupe, Geopost generated a €15.7 billion revenue and delivered 2.1 billion parcels worldwide in 2023.
