Who killed the postman?
Who killed the postman?
Pos Malaysia wants to be a major parcel delivery player but it has been in the red since 2019.
It’s been a busy week for me but, hey, no rest for the wicked. And it’s good to greet the first week of September with a blockbuster piece on an icon: Pos Malaysia. Today’s newsletter is a chonky read complete with charts, including a comparison with some financial metrics gymnastics.
You’re reading a paid version of The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power by writer and journalist Emmanuel Samarathisa.
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“When was the last time you received a parcel from Pos Malaysia?” An acquaintance posed this question while I was writing today’s newsletter.
They had a point — when was it, really? Recently I ordered a small item from Amazon and picked the cheapest shipping option and even that was delivered by Chinese courier SF Express, not Pos Malaysia.
The national courier has been on the back foot since 2018 — bleeding red in a landscape marked by cutthroat competition.
In the past, Pos Malaysia’s attraction was not so much its monopoly on mail (redundant for a while now, thanks to the internet, among other things), but its extensive network and the land that post offices sit on.
After being sold to tycoon Syed Mokhtar Albukhary, with the government retaining its golden share in the firm, Pos Malaysia has been white-knuckling to keep up with nimbler and deep-pocketed rivals.
Pos Malaysia’s group chief executive officer, Charles Brewer, tells The Malaysianist he has the mandate to do whatever it takes to bring the national courier back into the black.
Under his leadership, the firm launched a three-phase “transformation and turnaround plan” with the aim of becoming “a parcel delivery company that also delivers mail”1.
Along with a number of the firm’s peers, Pos Malaysia is lobbying the government for industry-wide changes in a move to create what they deem a more levelled playing field, including pushing for a floor price for parcels.
But insiders and analysts believe that without fundamental changes to Pos Malaysia's business model, the road to profitability will be long and arduous.