Wednesday marks the final day letters can be sent and received in Denmark with PostNord, the successor of the former national post service Post Danmark.
The company announced earlier in the year that it will switch to a parcels-only service amid protracted financial struggles.
“Danes have become more and more digital and that means there are very few letters left today. The decline is continuing so strongly that the letters market is no longer profitable,” CEO Kim Pedersen said in a statement in March.
Letter delivery in Denmark will rely on courier service Dao from 2026 onwards.
Hans Peter Nissen, chief executive of Dao, said the change is unlikely to require major adjustments as the company has already taken over the majority of letter deliveries during 2025.
“We expect our total volume of delivered items including parcels, magazines, newspapers and letters to increase from around 150 million in 2025 to about 205–210 million in 2026,” he told news wire Ritzau.
“We expect around 70 million of these to be letters,” he said.
READ ALSO: Is it possible to send letters in Denmark without PostNord?
Data from the Danish Transport Authority (Trafikstyrelsen) shows the number of letters sent in Denmark has plummeted from 1.44 billion in 2000 to 122 million in 2024.
The closure of PostNord’s letter service has resulted in 1,500 jobs lost.
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Nissen said that he hopes letters will continue to be sent and delivered in Denmark, providing a viable business despite the falling numbers.
“Around 90 percent of letter volume has disappeared over the last 20 years. We hope to keep the ones that are left,” he said to Ritzau.
Dao intends to offer fast delivery as an incentive for customer retention, he said.
“We can do this because we can combine delivery of newspapers with letters, magazines and parcels. That way, all four of our products are being carried in one bag,” he said.
Customers in Denmark who want to send a letter from January 1st will have to hand it in at one of Dao’s 1,600 pakkeshops or parcel counters across the country. The price for a letter will be 23 kroner.