Our strategy

Breakthrough 2028

In September 2025, we introduced Breakthrough 2028, our strategic plan that sets PostNL’s course towards 2028 and beyond. This represents the next step in our development as a leading e-commerce and logistics company, and will guide us in a dynamic e-commerce environment, strengthen our competitive position, and ensure we continue to lead in a rapidly changing market.

Building on a strong foundation, we are entering a new chapter for PostNL. Our new strategy reflects the energy, momentum, and ambition with which we are accelerating. The strategic direction is clear: in E-commerce, moving from volume to value through a differentiated approach and smart network utilisation; in Platforms, capturing international growth through asset-light models; and in Mail, transforming to a future-proof postal service. Over 225 years of social commitment, we have always been at the forefront of transformation and that will continue as we translate our ambitions into tangible results. We outline our new strategy below, starting with what sits at its heart: our North Star.

Our North Star

Our North Star, along with our purpose Connected to deliver what drives us all forward, defines who we are, what we stand for and why we exist. Our purpose guides the decisions we take and the relationships we build. In a world that is increasingly digital, complex, and interconnected, this ensures we remain relevant and responsible, creating value for customers, our people, shareholders, and society.

Anchored in our foundation of building on a strong heritage, driving change, serving society and being sustainable at the core, we continue to evolve through innovation and collaboration, staying a familiar presence in every street while contributing to a future-ready logistics ecosystem. By working with our broad range of stakeholders, we strengthen our role within the wider value chain and remain a driving force for progress in the Netherlands. Our values — connecting, personal, resourceful, and dedicated — guide how we work together and serve the communities around us.

Our four pillars

From our purpose flows a clear sense of what matters most. To deliver on our North Star and the role we play in society, we focus on four pillars that define how we create long-term value: Growth, Value, Innovation, and Impact. These pillars express what it means to be Connected to deliver what drives us all forward, sharing how we make decisions, how we invest, and how we measure success.

• Growth strengthens our competitive position in the Benelux and expands selective international activities through scalable, customer-centric propositions.
• Value focuses on operational excellence and disciplined execution, unlocking greater potential through optimising the consumer experience, improving margins, and making smarter use of our assets.
• Innovation drives the transformation of our networks, processes and customer experience through digitalisation and data-driven insights.
• Impact reflects our social and environmental responsibility, creating positive outcomes for our people, communities in which we operate and the planet.

Our strategic intent

These pillars are brought to life through our strategic intent, which is focused on growing our business, creating sustainable value, leading through innovation, and making impact that matters, ensuring that PostNL remains the favourite deliverer for everyone we serve. This intent translates our purpose into a clear ambition for the years ahead.

Our operating model

Breakthrough 2028 is our roadmap to realise our strategic intent and the ambitions of our North Star. The plan builds on our strong foundation and defines how we will further develop as a digital, sustainable, and customer-driven logistics company. To deliver on this, on 1 January 2026, we began steering and operating through three business segments and will report on these from 2026 onwards. These units, E-commerce, Platforms and Mail, reflect how we create value across e-commerce, cross-border logistics and our postal business, ensuring greater focus, accountability, and alignment with our strategy.

Enabling transformation

Our strategy is supported by three enablers that make transformation possible. ESG ensures that environmental, social and governance ambitions are embedded in all decisions and operations, with priorities informed by the outcomes of our double materiality assessment (DMA) and guided by our Science Based Targets initiative-aligned net-zero pathway.

Data & Tech drives digital transformation and underpins our ambition to become an AI-first organisation, enabling smarter processes, better insights and new opportunities for customers, consumers, and employees.

Innovation Beyond Delivery extends our reach beyond traditional logistics by exploring new business models in sustainability services, energy solutions, and digital commerce. Together, these enablers provide the capabilities, systems and culture required to deliver Breakthrough 2028 successfully.

From strategy to execution

We apply a disciplined approach to strategic portfolio management. This connects long-term ambition with day-to-day delivery by directing resources, investments, and initiatives towards the areas of greatest strategic impact. At the heart of this approach are our Strategic Portfolio Priorities (SPPs), ten integrated programmes that bring Breakthrough 2028 to life. The SPPs form the portfolio through which initiatives are aligned with our four pillars: Growth, Value, Innovation, and Impact. Together, they ensure that the objectives of each pillar are translated into clear actions.

To realise this ambition, our goals are to deliver excellent customer experiences, engaging and empowering our people, maintaining operational excellence and financial discipline, and creating measurable social and environmental impact.

Each programme has defined ownership, measurable goals and transparent reporting and is directly governed at the Executive Committee (EC) level. This integrated governance provides focus and accountability, ensuring that PostNL remains agile and aligned as markets, technologies and customer expectations continue to evolve.

Connecting strategy to performance

In the following section we explain how we delivered on our ambitions in 2025, before connecting this to our performance on our financial and non-financial KPIs. Our disciplined execution is aimed at accelerating performance towards 2028, with a clear focus on value creation, sustainable growth, and operational excellence. By 2028, we aim to achieve revenue of more than €4 billion, a normalised EBIT above €175 million, free cash flow exceeding €75 million and a return on invested capital (ROIC) of over 12%.

Alongside these financial ambitions, we continue to measure success through our non-financial impact on customers, the environment, and our people. In line with our integrated approach to value creation for all our stakeholders, we strive to remain the #1 carrier in customer satisfaction (NPS), improve carbon efficiency by 20–25% across scopes 1, 2 and 3, and increase employee engagement by 5 percentage points. Taken together, these KPIs reflect how our integrated strategy, grounded in the four pillars, translates into long-term performance and responsible value creation.