Posten AB

Posten AB is the name of the Swedish postal service. The word "posten" means "the post" or "the mail" in Swedish.

Posten was established in 1636 by Axel Oxenstierna under the name Kungliga Postverket (Royal Postal Agency), although its origins can be traced further back, and it was operated as a government agency into the 1990s when it was transformed into a government-owned limited company. One of the most visible changes to the postal service was the decision in 2000 to abandon the service maintained at the public post offices in 2001.

The public today deals with its postal business at Postal Service Points, which are maintained in grocery shops and gas stations. Postal Service Centres are maintained for business clients.

In addition to regular mail, Posten is also the largest distributor of direct mail (addressed and unadressed) in Sweden (annual report 2005, pg.18 ).

Mail and package delivery is seen as very reliable in Sweden, but it has undergone large scale organisational changes and rationalisation in the last decade. Nevertheless, it is under ever increasing competition from private companies on the Swedish deregulated postal market. Their main competitor is the formerly private company CityMail, nationalised by Norway as of 2006.

24 June 2009, Posten AB merged with Post Danmark to form the new holding company PostNord AB, owned by the Swedish (60%) and Danish (40%) governments.