New Zealand Post is a company with over 170 years of history. Since 1987, it has operated as a State Owned Enterprise (SOE) with the NZ Government as the 100% shareholder.
Long standing history
The history of New Zealand Post dates from 1840 with the establishment of the first Post office in the Bay of Islands.
By 1984, New Zealand Post Office was a monopoly Government provider of telecommunications and postal services, and also provided a Post Office Savings Bank service, but had suffered from under-investment. The postal side was losing $20m a year and forecasts were that this would increase in the future.
In 1986, the SOE Act led to the creation of New Zealand Post Limited, Telecom Corporation of New Zealand and PostBank Limited on 1 April 1987. Telecom and PostBank were later privatised but we remain 100% NZ Government owned.
Competing in deregulated markets
In 1989, a Deed of Understanding between New Zealand Post and the Government was first established, setting out certain social, price and service undertakings to be met by New Zealand Post. The Deed of Understanding was most recently reviewed in 2013 and now requires New Zealand Post to provide a basic postal delivery service offering 3 day per week delivery to the majority of delivery points and 5 day per week delivery to the majority of rural delivery points. It also includes undertakings in relation to the size of New Zealand Post’s network of service points.
See the full text of the 2013 Deed of Understanding.
Responsive to change
Over the years, New Zealand Post has faced several major strategic challenges. In response to each of these we've focused on doing what we do better and more efficiently.
However, in the 2020s, we know we will have to adapt more rapidly in order to successfully meet the expectations of our customers.