Swiss Post unveils first stamp price hikes in 18 years

The price of parcels will remain unchanged, as a gesture of support for businesses struggling under the weight of measures to fight Covid-19, the company said. © Keystone / Christian Beutler

The new prices for priority and standard mail were set in cooperation with the country’s price watchdog and will go into effect in January 2022.

Priority mail (A-Mail) inside Switzerland will be 10 centimes more expensive to send while the price of standard letters (B-Mail) will go up by 5 centimes, Swiss Post announced on Thursday.

The price of parcels will remain unchanged, as a gesture of support for businesses that have struggled because of closures and other restrictions introduced to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, the state-owned company said.

CEO Roberto Cirillo said the price hikes would ensure the long-term financing of basic postal services. He also explained that costs have risen significantly in the last 18 years: in addition to wage increases, there has been a growth in the number of households and therefore the number of private letterboxes in Switzerland to which a shrinking number of letters have to be delivered.

The new Swiss stamp prices will still be among the lowest in Europe, when adjusted for purchasing power.

Growing profits

The announcement came as Swiss Post saw profits for the first half of 2021 increase by CHF217 million ($237 million) over the previous year. This result was largely thanks to a growth in parcel delivery spurred by a continuing boom in online shopping. Because of Covid-19 measures, consumers have increasingly placed orders online and had products delivered to their home by post.

The company delivered 105 million parcels in the first six months of the year, compared to just over 90 million in the same period in 2020. The volume of newspapers and advertising sent by mail also increased, as did international mail. There was only a small decline (-0.9%) in posted letters.