Česká pošta, the state’s monopoly provider of postal services, is gearing up for a massive overhaul of its business model. The company’s top managers insist it’s the only way the loss-making company can survive in the long run. That’s important from a property perspective not because it will fire 7,000 of its 30,000 employees, but because the plans include selling off real estate that doesn’t make sense to own. Most spectacularly, this includes its huge headquarters building on Jindřišska street in Prague. The enormous building produces a remarkable volume of human traffic, so it will be interesting whether the project the replaces it can exploit the building’s ability to attract people or whether it will be closed off to the public. The Czech Post lost over CZK 1 bn last year, according to its director Roman Knap and has been in the red for four years.
“The company has been making a loss for years,” he said. “If we don’t undertake systemic changes in the structure of Czech Post, the within several years Czech Post will cease to exist.” It’s estimated that without a major overhaul, losses could mount to CZK 5bn by 2022. Knap’s vision is to compensate for the 10 percent annual fall in delivery of paper-based communications by exploiting the online retail-fueld boom in the delivery of packages.
