NZ Post delivered a record 14.5 million parcels delivered over November and December 2018, with 2.8 parcels on average being delivered every second.

NZ Post attributed this to the growing popularity of online shopping in New Zealand, which drove the postal service’s revenue up $19 million to $471 million for the six months to 31 December 2018.

Net profit also grew from $6 million in the prior corresponding period to $7 million.

“These figures show our focus on our parcels business is the right one,” NZ Post chief executive David Walsh said.

“Our operational performance has been a stand out for the first six months of this year, and has shown a significant improvement for us.”

While Walsh said the business’s six-month performance is encouraging, there is still a lot of work to do to continue to deliver on changing customer demand.

One such change is the growing focus on parcels, to better serve Kiwis shopping online and a decreasing focus on letters.

“In the last six months we delivered 200 million letters, but we are impacted by ongoing letter decline [and] while we are committed to providing a sustainable mail service to New Zealand, it’s the parcel business that is generating this growth,” Walsh said.