Canada Post Corporation is reporting a profit of $67 million in 2014’s second quarter, the Crown corporation announced August 27, citing a decrease in employee benefit costs and increasing parcel deliveries.
The profit comes on the heels of a poor first quarter, which had a loss of $28 million. In 2013’s second quarter, the corporation reported a $50 million loss.
The Crown corporation said the decrease in employee benefit costs was driven in large part by strong pension asset returns. Year-to-date benefit costs are $113 million lower than the same period last year. Pension and employee benefit costs are a huge factor in the corporation’s operating results, and are highly volatile, said Canada post, making them unpredictable.
Parcel delivery was strong due to online shopping. In the corporation’s mail delivery segment (as opposed to the corporation’s Purolator segment), domestic parcel delivery grew 10.9% as there were 2 million more parcels delivered.
In December 2013, Canada Post announced it was phasing out home delivery over the next five years. This came with the news that it was eliminating between 6,000 and 8,000 jobs. This is part of an overall plan the Crown corporation said it is implementing in order to make Canada Post financially self-sufficient.
