Always on the bpost activity report 2016 bpost is the leading operator of postal services and logistics solutions to, from and within Belgium. Each year over 27,000 employees deliver 8.6 million letters and 148,000 parcels on the threshold of more than 4.7 million households and businesses. ... always on the move bpost’s strategy is based on four strategic pillars: support and promote our core business, mail; achieve growth; make our way of working lean, agile and flexible and strengthen ties with our stakeholders. 2016 showed that we can be confident that our strategy will lead us towards further success. Proving our relevance every day, moving forward every day and grasping our future: that means that we are always on the move to bring our customers closer and make their lives easier. We are mail We grow We are lean, We are @core agile & flexible Key events On March 21, 2016 bpost acquired Freight Distribution Management (FDM) On June 1, 2016 bpost acquired Apple Express and Matt’s Express On June 20, 2016 bpost In August bpost took launched bringr a strategic stake in Parcify In September the management of bpost and the social partners approved a new collective agreement for the period 2016-2017 In September bpost invested in de Buren MAIN LOGO In October bpost was rewarded for its sustainable In OctoberSTANDALONE ICON Belfius, bpost and Proximus joined forces to development initiatives strengthen the local economy On November 10, 2016 the Brussels BLACK & WHITE Court of Appeal annulled a decision of On November 30, 2016 bpost the Belgian Competition Authority finalised the acquisition of the Belgian activities of Lagardère Travel Retail In December bpost decided not to pursue an offer for PostNL and continues to explore others In December bpost and DHL Parcel growth opportunities started non-exclusive cooperation in B2C parcel delivery on a pan-European level On December 12, 2016 bpost and DynaGroup joined forces and combined their logistical expertise Key figures 148,000 parcels handled every day 1,337 post offices and post points -36% carbon emissions in 2016 vs. 2007 24,850 FTE and interim (average) 8.6 million letters handled every day 87% satisfied customers Contents Profile Key events of the year Key figures 2016 Message to our stakeholders Our strategy We are mail We grow We are lean, agile & flexible We are @core Financial review The bpost share GRI Standards Content Index Message to our stakeholders Always on the move... to Message our stakeholders 2016 was a good year for bpost in many respects. Not simply because we were able to present strong results and keep our promises, but also because we made progress on the various cornerstones of our strategy. We showed resilience in traditional mail, achieved solid growth in parcels, laid the foundations for new future growth and remained on track with our productivity improvements. We did all of this without losing sight of our stakeholders. bpost aspires to play a leading role in the We also aim to expand our proximity European postal market. We also have the and convenience offering. resources to realise that ambition. In 2016 we further endorsed that ambition and That’s why, in 2016, we took big strides audacity. in our ambition to make it even easier for our customers to receive and send 2016 was a year in which bpost was always parcels. We continued to work with on the move, to bring our customers closer a number of major shippers to enable and to make their lives easier. Always on the parcel delivery in the evenings and at move... the weekend, and we enlarged our parcel network through innovative To support and promote our core solutions, allowing customers to select business, mail the solution that suits them best. “bpost aspires to In 2016 we proved that our domestic For example, in 2016 we took play a leading role mail is resilient. At 5%, the decrease in our a strategic stake in Parcify and de traditional mail volumes remained under Buren, two start-ups that capitalise on in the European control. the promising innovative technology postal market. We achieved good results in advertising for last-mile delivery services with mail in particular. We slowed down the greater convenience for both senders We also have decrease here by targeting business sectors and recipients. Parcify uses the the resources where mail continues to be a relevant part geotracking facility on smartphones of the communication mix. To this end, we to deliver parcels to recipients when to realise that respond to the market trend in commercial and where they want. de Buren runs ambition. In communication to combine various channels an open network of secure, sometimes that strengthen the message to consumers. cooled, parcel locker walls in the 2016 we further The stopping power of mail reinforces Netherlands, which are accessible endorsed that a digital message that is less powerful, but 24/7 using an app. The ultimate goal has a greater reach. is to cover the whole of Belgium with ambition and 500 locker locations in addition to our own parcel lockers, and to expand the audacity.” To achieve growth current offer in the Netherlands from We achieved growth on the domestic parcel 50 to 1,000 locations. market of no less than 17.1% compared with 2015. That solid growth is the consequence We also launched bringr, of a booming e-commerce sector and the a complementary service based on many efforts we have invested on the an innovative collaborative platform parcel market. Our acquisition strategy to app allowing smartphone users to strengthen our service offering and the find a driver for delivering goods. non-exclusive partnership we established All these initiatives enable us to in 2016 with DHL Parcel for the delivery of continue building a hybrid network B2C parcels at European level will certainly that responds to each and every help us to continue to grow. specific need of our customers. ACTIVITY REPORT 2016 REPORT ACTIVITY bpost “We are right Internationally, the acquisition of To make our way of working lean, DynaGroup, which offers a range of agile and flexible on schedule with logistical services, enables us to add more We implemented our productivity logistical solutions to our service for improvements in a disciplined way and our Vision 2020 e-commerce customers. For that matter, according to plan in 2016. We are right 2016 was a challenging year on the project and the on schedule with our Vision 2020 project, international parcel market. We primarily the aim of which is to further automate construction focused on expanding our network and sorting and set down the future mail services through our subsidiary Landmark of the new organisation. We remain on track with the Global. We strengthened our international construction of the new Brussels X, our Brussels X.” parcel strategy with the acquisition largest sorting center, where, among other of Freight Distribution Management things, all domestic parcels will be sorted (Australia) and Apple Express (Canada). from October 2017. The building was made Another step within our growth and watertight and windproof in the summer of 2 diversification strategy in proximity and 2016, enabling the 25,000 m parcel sorting convenience was the finalisation of the hall to be finished, among other things. acquisition of the Belgian activities of The installation of the parcel sorting machine Lagardère Travel Retail. That enabled us to itself began in early 2017. further diversify our range of products and Five additional MSM (Mixed Sorting services to our customers and enlarge our Machines) were also taken into use in 2016. network of parcel pick-up points. The MSM is a highly advanced sorting We also continued to enlarge our other machine that will form the backbone of our solutions, wherefore we mainly leverage future mail sorting activity. Of the planned the strength of our dense network and the 30 MSMs, 16 were operational by the end trust people show in our postmen. of 2016. Technological development did not stand still in other areas either: 70 sorting cabinets were taken into use, facilitating manual sorting by means of optical address recognition (by camera). The reform of our network to 60 mail centers continued unabated. We also continue to work on other projects in all other departments to make our organisation more efficient, agile and flexible. Message to to Message our stakeholders To strengthen ties with our Lastly, bpost remains committed to stakeholders developing its activities in a sustainable way. Our aim is to be a socially responsible We are a company of people, for people. company. In 2016 we again placed first in We can count on the loyal engagement and the International Post Corporation’s (IPC) knowhow of our employees. Their wellbeing global environmental management ranking. is therefore a key concern for us. With that We also signed the Belgian charter for the in mind, as well as the usual monitoring of United Nations Sustainable Development stress and engagement indicators, in 2016 Goals (UNSDG) and we deepened our we took a number of additional steps to engagement by incorporating them into our increase the wellbeing of our employees, CSR strategy. such as initiatives with regard to guidance for newcomers, training, improved leave All efforts to ensure the flawless planning and balanced workload allocation implementation of our strategy were for all. We also entered into a new collective reflected in our good financial results. bargaining agreement for 2016-2017. Normalised turnover rose by almost one It provides for a number of major measures percent (from EUR 2,407.6 million in 2015 “2016 showed to increase purchasing power, while to EUR 2,425.2 million in 2016).