2022 was a year of challenges and rapid development for Omniva

2022 was a year of challenges, investment, and rapid development for Omniva, both in the domestic market of the Baltics and internationally.  
 
According to Mart Mägi, chairman of the management board of Omniva, the last quarter of the year turned out to be as busy as usual – 8 million parcels and nearly one million letters were delivered over the Christmas month. As a whole, last year was a year of rapid growth for the Group, despite the effects of the challenging external environment. 
 
‘2022 was the third consecutive year of profitability for us, regardless of the falling mail volumes, the changing economic climate, and the war which broke out between Russia and Ukraine,’ Mägi said. ‘We became increasingly international – the share of universal postal services in the turnover of Omniva has fallen below 10% and e-commerce services now account for more than 70% of the turnover. Our home market is the Baltic states, but our operations extend from America to Kazakhstan.’ 
 
The operations and revenues of the Group were significantly affected by the Russian-Ukrainian war that started in February. Omniva has stopped the entire international commercial cooperation with Russia and Belarus, continuing only with the universality postal service in accordance with the Treaty of Lausanne. Revenues decreased in all service groups compared to the previous year, with international transit revenues dropping the most.  
 
The revenue of the fourth quarter of last year was 33.9 million euros, down 11.9% year-on-year. The total operating income for the year was 129.1 million euros, down 13% year-on-year. The operating expenditure of the group amounted to 129.3 million euros, shrinking by 3% year-on-year. The operating loss of the Group for the year was 224 thousand euros, which was lower than expected. The net profit for the fourth quarter was 6 million euros.
    
The investments of the group increased to nearly 18 million euros, the largest of which were made into the acquisition and expansion of parcel vending machines, the renewal of the car fleet and post offices, and business developments related to the international business.  
 
Mart Mägi stressed that ‘In times of crises, you have to invest – in people, technology and services. Technological development offers almost limitless opportunities and Omniva has a clear goal in mind and a solid plan on how to be the first to adopt new digital solutions and provide new generation services easily, conveniently. and responsibly, both domestically and across the national borders.’ 
 
Parcel and postal services were taken ever closer to the people: in 2022, 230 parcel machines were added across the Baltics, including the 1000^th parcel machine in Vilnius, several post offices were renovated, virtual parcel services were launched, and the volume of personalised postal services was increased. Furthermore, post offices were relocated to more easily walkable and accessible locations, and some very little-used post offices were closed. Cooperation with municipalities and communities to modernise the postal service was also expanded. This has led to a clear increase in customer satisfaction and Omniva is today the most beloved brand in its field in the Baltics.  
 
In international transit services, the operations were reoriented for new markets, new offices were opened, and cooperation with international e-commerce companies was intensified and launched. In order to expand international activities, preparations were launched for the construction of a new 40 million-euro sorting centre in Kaunas. An extension of the logistics centre in Estonia is also being prepared to link the sorting centres in Tallinn and Rae municipality. Outside of the Baltic states, Omniva also has sorting centres in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and Kyrgyzstan, as well as freight forwarding points in the United States. 
 
The volume of digital services decreased mainly due to the sale of the subsidiary Maksekeskus AS. The sales revenue of Finbite OÜ, a subsidiary providing various invoicing solutions, increased by 5 per cent to 3.3 million euros.  
 
‘Looking ahead, we believe at Omniva that the advantage of the future players will be responsible, environmentally sustainable, and innovative logistics management,’ Mägi added. The activities of the company were focussed on responsibility and environmental sustainability: the company has started to use electric cars and cargo bikes for postal transport and plans to increase their number. The new post offices came up with a green packaging recycling solution and joined the sustainability programme of the international postal organisation IPC to move towards reducing the footprint that measures business performance. Cooperation with the National Library of Estonia was launched and now the books borrowed via the My Library (MIRKO) platform are delivered to parcel machines all over Estonia. The Group also supported free delivery of humanitarian aid to Ukraine. As has become customary, pumpkins collected by children all over Estonia were transported free of charge to the Tallinn Zoo.  
 
Last year, Omniva was recognised as the fastest growing brand in the Baltics by Brand Capital and we were selected as one of the top three most valued brands and awarded the Rising Star of Postal Development award by the International Postal Union. Omniva Latvia was awarded the Gold Level Quality Label for Responsible Business and Omniva Lithuania was selected among the top ten most sustainable brands by SBInsight. 
 
The consolidated interim report for the fourth quarter of 2022 has been published on the website of Omniva in Estonian.  This is the final unaudited version of the report. The audited data will be published at the end of March.   
 
Omniva is a multinational group of companies whose core business is to provide logistics services (parcel and postal services), digital services, and international transit services. The home market of the Group is the Baltic states. The Group consists of AS Eesti Post as the parent company and the following subsidiaries: Finbite OÜ in Estonia, UAB Omniva LT and its subsidiary UAB Omniva LT Sorting in Lithuania, and Omniva SIA in Latvia. AS Eesti Post is a 100% Estonian state-owned company.