PostNord, the state-owned postal service in Denmark, will stop delivering letters as of this Wednesday, ending a 401-year tradition, although it will still be possible to send letters through a private company. On Tuesday, the company's postal carriers will make their final rounds to deliver mail, following a decision announced last March and justified by a lack of profitability. Since the year 2000, when a record high of 1.5 billion letters was reached, the number of letters sent by Danes has plummeted to 122 million last year, a drop of over 90%. "It has been a difficult decision to put an end to this part of our history," the statement read. The director of PostNord's Danish subsidiary, Kim Pedersen, justified the historic move a few months ago, stating: "Danes are becoming more and more digital, there are very few letters today and that decline continues, so the postal market is no longer profitable." The Danish state had already taken the first step in 2014 when it decided that all communication between the authorities and citizens should be digital. Another almost definitive step took place in 2023 when the postal market was de facto privatized by exempting PostNord from the obligation to transport letters, parcels, magazines, and newspapers in exchange for state compensation, after the company accumulated million-dollar losses. However, Danes will still be able to send letters through the 1,600 private parcel shops of Dao, a company that has been dedicated for years to the delivery of newspapers, magazines, and parcels and will take over the distribution of letters from Thursday, January 1, 2026. Dao estimates that the number of products distributed will increase in 2026 from 150 to 210 million, of which about 70 million will be letters. "We hope that the remaining letters will be for citizens who want to continue receiving them in this way," Dao director Hans Peter Nissen told the Danish agency Ritzau. Nissen was convinced that the business will be profitable, as the company can combine the delivery of letters with newspapers, magazines, and parcels, and promised a faster service and that the most geographically isolated areas will not be left behind. The decision to stop delivering letters and focus exclusively on parcels will only affect Denmark, PostNord assured. The company, which was born in 2008 from the merger of the postal services of Sweden and Denmark and is controlled by the Swedish state (60%) and the Danish (40%), will continue to deliver letters in Sweden as usual. Of the 2,200 workers in the Danish postal service, 1,500 will be laid off, and the rest have been offered positions in other parts of the organization, the company announced at the time.
