The Post Office’s (PO) newly published annual accounts detail a year which interim chairman Nigel Railton described as ‘one of the most challenging’ in its history.

For the 2023 to 2024 financial year it reported trading profits of £22m, down from £50m the year before. The PO’s overall results were more severe, with a total statutory loss more than five times greater than the year before at £414m.

Post Office retailers also experienced a real-terms pay cut during the period. Inflation at the end of the PO’s financial year stood at 4.4%, while remuneration paid out to PO branches during the year rose by just 3.5% from £399m to £413m. This equates to an average annual pay packet of £35,329 per PO branch.

Post Office announces £20m pay boost to postmasters

Commissions paid to Payzone retailers remained flat at £3m.

Railton admitted: “Postmasters did not share in enough of our revenue and that needs to change.” He promised to use improvements in cash, banking and mails services in branch and online to boost retailer pay.

Beyond the period covered by the report, PO has introduced new and increased remunerations for branches, including a £20m ‘top-up’ paid out before Christmas.

The report also marks CEO Nick Read’s last in the position, as he will step down in March 2025. He hailed progress made to becoming more centred on the needs of PO branch owners, but added: “There should be no mistaking the progress I describe above as suggesting that Post Office is ‘fixed’. It is very far from reaching that point.”

Read remained positive about his long-term goal to give ownership of the PO to branch owners, stating: “A new Government, [as] a new Shareholder, keen to reform and build for the long term, may well bring fresh ideas about future ownership models as well as the political will to act on them.”

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