Finnish postal operator Posti is celebrating its 380th anniversary on the 6th September. In recent years it has gone from being a postal operator to being the largest logistics service provider in the country. According to Posti it now makes some 11 million deliveries in the country of which 150,000 are parcels.

“Due to digitalization, Posti is facing a turning point in its long history: as digital communications are becoming more and more common and the needs of our customers are changing rapidly, our work involves an increasing number of goods and parcel transports, various logistics services and a significant amount of digital services. The proportion of universal service products or stamped items is currently less than 5% of all delivered items,” says Posti’s President and CEO Heikki Malinen.

Over the last 380 years the service has become a universal postal service across Finland. Times are changing with letter volumes declining and e-commerce parcel deliveries growing by 10% every year. From a management perspective this means that constant reforms necessary due to the decline in mail volumes and growth in parcel volumes. Posti believes that its future lies firmly in parcels and logistics as opposed to a postal operator.

“Widespread e-commerce and parcel business are in the early phases of their growth. We have merely scratched the surface of this megatrend. Thanks to online stores, Finns can buy nearly anything in Finland and abroad, and Posti will deliver the items to their destinations,” says Malinen.

Here’s another interesting fact: when Posti started out it sometimes took 20 days to deliver mail. parcels can now be delivered in just 10 hours.

“Our customers expect us to be fast. To meet their expectations, we are beginning to deliver parcels purchased online on the same day and launching weekend deliveries this fall,” says Malinen.