With the aim of reducing deficits recorded since 2022, Correios released this Monday (29) a restructuring plan for the company with the forecast of closing 16% of the state-owned agencies, which represents around one thousand of the company’s 6 thousand owned units across the country.
The state-owned company expects to save R$2.1 billion by closing units. Considering other service points carried out through partnerships, there are 10 thousand units that provide services for the Post Office in Brazil. As the public company has the obligation to cover the entire national territory, the president of the state-owned company, Emmanoel Rondon, highlighted that the closure of these agencies will be carried out without violating the principle of universal postal service.
“We will weigh the result [financeiro das agências] and compliance with universalization so that we do not harm universalization by closing the company’s points of sale”, explained the president of Correios at a press conference in Brasília (DF).
Voluntary Dismissal
The Correios plan also foresees expense cuts of around R$5 billion by 2028, with the sale of properties and two voluntary dismissal plans (PDVs) expected to reduce the number of employees by 15 thousand by 2027.
“We have 90% of expenses with a fixed expense profile. This creates rigidity for us to make some course corrections when market dynamics require it”, he said.
The restructuring plan was expected due to the successive negative results that the state-owned company has been accumulating since 2022, with a structural deficit of R$4 billion annually “due to compliance with the universalization rule”, as explained by President Rondon.
In 2025, the state-owned company records a negative balance of R$6 billion in the first nine months of the year and has a negative net worth of R$10.4 billion.
Loan and IPO
The company also reported that took out a loan of R$12 billion with banks to reinforce the company’s cash flow, signed last Friday (26). However, Correios management is still working to find another R$8 billion needed to balance the accounts in 2026.
The state-owned company is also studying, from 2027, a corporate change in Correios. Currently, the company is 100% public, but is evaluating the possibility of going public by transforming it, for example, into a mixed economy company, like Petrobras and Banco do Brasil are today.
Cutting personnel and benefits
The plan presented by Correios foresees measures to be implemented between 2026 and 2027, including POSs, one next year and the other in 2027.
Other targets of the Correios management are the health and pension plans for employees, which should see cuts in the contributions made by the state-owned company.
“The plan [de saúde] It has to be completely reviewed and we have to change its logic because today it is very costly. It has good coverage for the employee, but at the same time, it is financially unsustainable for the company”, explained the president.
With voluntary layoffs and benefit cuts, Correios expects to reduce personnel expenses by R$2.1 billion annually. Furthermore, the plan estimates selling the company’s properties to generate R$1.5 billion in revenue.
“This plan goes beyond financial recovery. It reaffirms Correios as a strategic asset of the Brazilian state, essential to integrate the national territory, guarantee equal access to logistical services and ensure operational efficiency in each region of the country, especially where no one else reaches”, concluded the president of Correios.
Crisis in the postal sector
Correios is facing a financial crisis that, according to the company’s management, has been going on since 2016, driven by changes in the postal market due to the digitalization of communications, which replaced letters, reducing the main source of revenue.
The state-owned company also attributes financial difficulties to the entry of new competitors in e-commerce as one of the reasons for the current crisis in the sector.
“It’s a market dynamic that happened all over the world and some postal companies managed to adapt. Several of these companies still record losses. An example is the American postal company that is reporting losses in the order of US$9 billion”, compared Emmanoel.
The president of the Brazilian state-owned company referred to the United States (USA) public company United States Postal Service (USPS), which also recently announced measures to address financial deficits.
