Major nation’s postal service to stop delivering letters

A whopping 90 per cent drop in letter volumes has seen the state-run service decide to walk away from deliveries after 400 years.

Denmark’s stat-run postal office has announced it will deliver its “final letter” by the end of 2025 – marking an end to 400 years of service.

PostNord announced on Thursday, local time, it was slashing a third of Danish staff after a 90 per cent drop in letter deliveries since the turn of the millennium.

“At the end of the year, PostNord will deliver its final letter … to focus on its role as the premier parcel delivery service in Denmark,” the company announced in a statement.

PostNord said digitalisation had changed the way Danes communicated and that, although its decision was not taken lightly, the demand for letters “speaks for itself”.

Denmark's state-run carrier will stop delivering letters in December. Picture: PostNord

“In 2024, the number of letters fell by more than 30 per cent compared to the previous year and this trend will continue,” the company said.

The number of letter deliveries PostNord made in 2024 was 110 million, a 90 per cent drop on the 1.4 billion made in 2000.

It revealed overnight a total of 1,500 out of 4,600 jobs will also be cut, however, the organisation would continue its parcel delivery.

Many postal services are struggling across Europe due to digitalisation.

The German postal service, Deutsche Post, also announced on Thursday that it would cut 8000 jobs in Germany to reduce costs.

Britain’s postal operator, Royal Mail, has also seen its core letters business ravaged.

It will mark the end of more than 400 years of tradition. Picture: PostNord

The communications regulator Ofcom has proposed that Royal Mail cut delivery to five days, or even three days per week, potentially saving hundreds of millions of pounds.

Australia Post also announced a scale back of its letter delivery service in 2024, reducing services to every second business day.

PostNord lost its status as the universal postal service in Denmark last year, in government a move towards market liberalisation, meaning the company lost much of its financial support.

“We are naturally obliged to adapt to this new situation and are now taking the next step in our strategy to build a strong PostNord for the future,” PostNord said.

“This means that as from 2026, PostNord will stop handling letters in Denmark and focus exclusively on becoming the Danes’ favourite parcel delivery service.

“PostNord will continue to collect, sort and deliver mail in Denmark up to and including December 30, 2025.”

PostNord is owned by both the Swedish and Danish governments. Picture: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP

Denmark’s postal service began in 1642 under the Postvæsenet, founded by King Christian IV.

It was nationalised in 1711 and later merged with the national telegraphy services in 1927.

Distributor DAO, which won the Danish government contract to deliver public service mail last year, has said it was ready to strengthen its letter delivery service.

“We can still send and receive letters everywhere in the country,” Transport Minister Thomas Danielsen told the local news agency Ritzau.

PostNord’s operations in neighbouring Sweden will remain unchanged, the organisation said.

The postal service is 40 per cent Danish owned and 60 per cent Swedish owned, after the two nations merged their respective mail delivery networks in 2009.

Originally published as Major nation’s postal service to stop delivering letters