Leading British fashion retailer Next has renewed its exclusive home delivery contract with Hermesfor the next eight years in what is described as one of Britain’s largest-ever B2C deals.
The parcel volume and value of the contract, which covers the group’s online and mail-orderbusiness Next Directory, were not disclosed. Next Directory has some 2.2 million active customersand revenues of more than £800 million. Next plc has group revenue of nearly £3.3 billion.
Hermes, which has been the delivery partner for Next Directory since its launch in 1988,retained the contract following a review of the UK home delivery market. The two parties now planto launch a range of service improvements over the coming year.
The B2C specialist collects the Next parcels on a daily basis from Next’s distributioncentres and dispatches them overnight to its regional depots. From there, the orders aredistributed to the company’s network of more than 7,500 lifestyle couriers for deliveries tohouseholds across the country. This logistics operation enables Next to offer a 24-hour deliveryservice.
Carole Woodhead, CEO of Hermes in the UK, said: “By extending this contract until 2018,Next have shown the high level of faith they have in Hermes and our ability to continue to providethem with a market leading service which provides excellent value for money. We will be workingtogether with Next to launch a new suite of services over the next 12 months that will ensure thatNext remains the standard bearer in the UK home delivery market.”
The major UK contract was welcomed by Hanjo Schneider, CEO Hermes Europe and Otto Group boardmember for Services, as evidence of the company’s successful international expansion. “The majorcontract from Next shows that Hermes has successfully established itself in the British market andis increasingly seen as a European logistics service provider,” he commented.
