The core products and services offered through our postal outlets include letter and parcel services and a wide range of agency-based services, including bill payment, agency banking, money orders, passport interviews, personal identity and verification services, travellers’ cheques and money transfers.

We also offer a variety of merchandise that complements those core products and services, including packaging and philatelic products, stationery, communications products, office and computer products, and gifts and cards.

As well as making a commercial return through our retail outlets, we have a community service obligation under the Australian Postal Corporation Act 1989 to maintain a minimum of 4,000 postal outlets across Australia, including 2,500 in rural and remote areas. In 2005/06 we exceeded that requirement with a total of 4,462 postal outlets, including 2,563 in rural and remote areas. Our network of postal outlets is still the largest physical retail network in Australia. The table below gives a breakdown of the types and locations of our retail outlets.

The retail experience in a postal outlet is unique: our customers generally come to the post office with a specific list of things they need to achieve. With this in mind, we are now focussing more strongly on what we can do for our customers. For our business customers, we are developing product categories and themes that are easy for them to understand and use – such as “marketing your business”, “delivering your product”, “collecting customer payments” and “supplying your office”. We are also grouping products and services to help consumers become organised and get things done. We have bundled a range of travel-related services and new accessory ranges to support this strategy.