Dutch postal delivery group PostNL booked turnover of just over €1bn in the first three months of this year, a 2% rise on the same period in 2014.

However, net profit was down 37% at €34m and the volume of letters fell 13% year on year, the company said.

The number of parcel and package deliveries was up 8%, partly due to a rise in international deliveries, particularly in milk powder deliveries to China, PostNL said. This had also been the case in the previous quarter.

However, cutting costs and increasing prices cannot compensate for the fall in letter deliveries, said chief executive Herna Verhagen in a statement.

‘For the full year we expect volume decline to be within the earlier guided range of 9% -12%,’ she said. ‘Cost savings are expected to be higher in the second half of 2015 due to phasing in the implementation of the restructuring plans.’

PostNL is active in Germany, Britain, Italy, Belgium and Luxemburg as well as the Netherlands. The company has a workforce of more than 56,000.