On October 1st, the previous CFO Walter Oblin will take over the executive chair at the partially state-owned Österreichische Post AG. He sees his three priorities as growth, innovation and digitalization as well as sustainability. “I am convinced that technology leadership is crucial in our industry. The transformation continues,” said Oblin. “My claim is also that we are one of the best employers in the country. The employees are the ones who make the difference in our performance,” he emphasized in an interview with the APA. A reduction in employees is not an issue – on the contrary, “we are constantly looking for employees, from delivery workers to IT experts.” The postal service already employs over 1,000 IT specialists and bought a Greek software company the year before last because “our hunger for IT specialists” cannot be satisfied in Austria alone. Post AG now also offers IT services beyond its core business. “We are becoming more and more of a digital services provider,” Oblin explained. The Post’s online platform shöpping now has over 1,000 retailers and is growing, albeit slowly. “We are investing a very manageable amount, around one percent of the net result,” he calculated. In the medium term, the aim is to be in the black. Oblin makes a clear commitment to Bank99; international examples show how important it is for a post office to also have a financial institution. “The last four and a half years have shown that the ecosystem works. We are growing in a difficult credit market,” said Oblin. But we are not “out of the woods” yet; the goal is to reach break-even next year. The expansion of self-service stations is continuing; by the end of the year there will be around 1,500 self-service stations. “We see that this offer is being very well received by customers,” explained Oblin. Like the head of the Post, Georg Pölzl, the country’s future top postal worker raves about the parcel business of the Turkish postal subsidiary Aras Kargo. Turkey is a very large, dynamic and rapidly growing market. “We also see Turkey as a bridgehead into an exciting region that is not yet as well developed in terms of packages as Western and Eastern Europe,” said Oblin. Swiss Post will continue to be a pioneer in the area of sustainability, and the significant expansion of the electric car fleet will continue under current boss Pölzl. 40 to 50 million euros are invested in new vehicles every year. With the massive expansion of photovoltaics, we are moving towards generating 25 to 30 percent of our own electricity. The large roof areas of the post office’s logistics centers still left the imagination open to storing electricity at peak times and releasing it when needed. Regarding the upcoming National Council election, the future postal director general said: “I would like to see a government that tackles major reforms.” The economy is currently “in a difficult phase”. “We see how retail is coming under severe pressure,” says Oblin, referring to the pressure from Amazon on the one hand and from Chinese online marketplaces such as Temu on the other. Deregulation and a basic mood “that the economy is something positive” are desirable. “We need more incentives for people to work, even full-time,” said Oblin. Regarding the capital market in Austria, Oblin said that the post office was an example of successful privatization – and that it was good to have the state as a core shareholder. This also offers a certain level of takeover protection. The capital market in Austria is “developable”. This starts with school education right through to pension provision. And there is still a lot of room for improvement when it comes to start-up capital for young companies. Oblin has been at the Austrian Post for 14 years, almost as long as current boss Pölzl at the partially state-owned, listed company. Oblin is currently deputy general director and board member for letters and finances. Oblin was born in Villach in 1969 and studied industrial engineering and mechanical engineering at Graz University of Technology, and he also completed an MBA in the USA. He started his professional career in 1994 as a management consultant at McKinsey in Vienna. His current boss Pölzl recently said goodbye with a very good half-year balance. The operating result (EBIT) of the Austrian Post climbed by 10.9 percent to 105.6 million euros, and sales increased year-on-year by 17.2 percent to 1.51 billion euros. At the end of June, the equity capital was a remarkable 682.0 million. Oblin already has one innovation in store: From October 6th, the post office will be testing Sunday delivery for “premium” shipping customers on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 3rd days 4th district of Vienna. “If the test is positive, all of Vienna and subsequently the surrounding area and other state capitals should follow in the first half of 2025,” said Oblin.
