InPost Delivers Growth With a Margin Hangover

InPost Delivers Growth With a Margin Hangover

Mark Nichols

Mon, August 31, 2026 at 6:08 PM GMT+3 4 min read

THE GIST

Our analysts just identified a stock with the potential to be the next Nvidia. Tell us how you invest and we'll show you why it's our #1 pick. Tap here.

InPost is moving more packages. The problem is that not every parcel is arriving with a fat profit attached. The logistics group grew revenue and volumes fast in the first half, but margins got squeezed and profit guidance got cut. Growth is still there. The delivery bill just got heavier.

WHAT HAPPENED

InPost reported first-half revenue of €1.89 billion (about $2.2 billion), up 24% from a year earlier, after handling 740 million global shipments, a 23% increase.

Adjusted EBITDA was €457.5 million, barely above last year with growth of just 0.3%. That is the tension in the update: the parcel machine is running hotter, but the profit engine is not keeping pace.

International operations are now the bigger story. Markets outside Poland contributed 54% of total revenue, showing how far the company has moved beyond its home base. In the Eurozone, second-quarter shipment volumes rose 30% year on year to 101 million parcels, while revenue climbed 37.9% to €287.1 million. Adjusted EBITDA in the region rose almost 40%, helped by stronger business-to-consumer demand and a bigger locker network.

Iberia remains part of that expansion push. InPost is strengthening its network there after integrating Sending, giving the group a broader mix of out-of-home delivery, home delivery and logistics services for merchants.

The second quarter was good enough to beat forecasts, but only just. Adjusted EBITDA came in at 1.04 billion zlotys, above expectations of 1.01 billion zlotys. Revenue rose 18% to 4.18 billion zlotys, with parcel volumes up 16% to 380.9 million.

Net profit was less pretty. It fell 30% to 93 million zlotys, hit by higher depreciation from the expanding locker network, a higher tax rate and foreign-exchange pressure linked to euro-denominated debt.

Margins told the same story. Adjusted core-profit margin fell 3.3 percentage points in the second quarter and 5.7 points across the first half.

That pushed InPost to cut its 2026 outlook. The company now expects adjusted EBITDA to fall by a mid-single-digit percentage, instead of staying flat. The downgrade reflects higher investment costs, tougher pricing in Poland and the ongoing turnaround in Britain and Ireland.

The U.K. is the awkward package in the warehouse. InPost is still working through the revamp of the former Yodel business, with a focus on reducing cost per parcel and improving use of the logistics network.

There is also a deal subplot. InPost is the target of a €7.8 billion takeover offer from a consortium led by FedEx and Advent International. The offer launched in May, has cleared regulatory hurdles and runs until September 18.

WHY IT MATTERS

InPost is trying to become Europe's parcel-locker champion at exactly the moment e-commerce logistics is getting more competitive, more expensive and more operationally complicated.

One stock. Nvidia-level potential. 30M+ investors trust Moby to find it first. Get the pick. Tap here.

The bull case is easy to see. Parcel lockers are cheaper and more efficient than repeated doorstep deliveries. They can reduce failed delivery attempts, improve route density and give consumers more flexibility. For retailers, they offer a way to manage growing online volumes without handing every parcel to a costly home-delivery network.

That model works best at scale. The more lockers InPost installs, the more dense its network becomes. The more dense the network becomes, the more useful it is for merchants and shoppers. That is the flywheel.

But flywheels are not free.

InPost is spending heavily to expand and transform its international business. More lockers mean more depreciation. More countries mean more complexity. More competition means less pricing power. And in the U.K., the Yodel turnaround is still absorbing management attention and cash.

That is why investors can like the growth and still worry about the margin line. A parcel business that adds volume but loses profitability is basically a treadmill with branding.

Poland adds another pressure point. The home market remains important, but tougher pricing is making life harder. If the company has to defend share there while investing abroad, the near-term profit squeeze could last longer than investors want.

The takeover offer raises the stakes. For FedEx, InPost would be a shortcut into European out-of-home delivery, a market that could become increasingly important as e-commerce matures and consumers demand cheaper, greener and more flexible shipping options. For Advent, the attraction is a scaled infrastructure platform with room to optimize.

The strategic logic is strong. The financial picture is messier.

WHAT'S NEXT

The September 18 offer deadline is the key date. Investors will watch whether shareholders accept the FedEx-Advent bid or decide InPost's European locker network is worth waiting on.

Operationally, the next test is whether the company can keep Eurozone momentum strong while fixing the U.K. and defending profitability in Poland.

InPost is clearly delivering growth. Now it has to prove the boxes can deliver better margins too.