The business environment faced by Austrian Post in 2013 was extremely challenging. That is why it is all the more gratifying to see that Austrian Post succeeded in once again slightly increasing revenue and further improving earnings during the year under review. The resolute orientation of all our activities to the strategy we defined in 2010 has played a major role in this, and has enabled us to react to the ongoing trends in the postal and logistics sector. We compensated for the substitution of traditional mail by exploiting growth opportunities. The increase in e-commerce and the expansion of our business solutions strengthened our parcel business. At the same time, we are continously optimising our cost base, not only to make our postal and logistics services more customer oriented, but also to offer them on the marketplace as efficiently as possible.