Yodel has announced a major shake-up of its senior management, with former Parcelforce MD DickStead taking over as executive chairman with immediate effect and CEO Jonathan Smith set to leave
by the end of the year, as the UK parcel company continues its struggle to improve its financialand operational performance.In a letter to customers yesterday, Stead announced that commercial director Adam Smith hadalso “decided to leave the business at the end of October to pursue his career outside the company”, along with Greg Smith, chief information officer. Stead thanked customers for their patienceduring “the challenging journey of our network integration”, and acknowledged that Yodel’s servicequality “has been more variable than we all would have liked”.
He added: “Our current short-term objectives are to ensure our IT platform is completelystable, that we have a successful and smooth-running Christmas period, and provide you and yourcustomers with the highest quality of service at all times.”
Stead said Smith had “taken the decision that it is time for him to move on from Yodel”,saying Smith had “provided leadership and direction” through the initial creation of Yodel and thesubsequent programme to integrate the former Home Delivery Network and DHL UK domestic expressbusiness, which were merged to form Yodel in 2010.
“We are looking to replace Jonathan; however in the interim, he and I will work together,with the aim of the executive team reporting to me by the end of October, until a new CEO is inplace,” Stead added. “We have also taken the opportunity to move to a smaller and more focusedleadership structure.”
The new ‘executive team’ headed by Stead will be supported by four executive directors,including the new role of chief commercial officer, with responsibility for sales, marketing,customer experience and customer contact. This role will be undertaken on an interim basis by PeterFisher, who Stead said had held a number of temporary and permanent senior general management andcommercial roles, including assignments with both Parcelforce and Collect . Marija Simovic becomeschief operating officer (COO) and Mark Strickland becomes chief finance officer.
Stead said Smith would be working closely with Fisher through the rest of this transition toset up the new commercial organisation, although it was unclear whether the changes would bring anew strategy or focus for Yodel.
After receiving a high level of criticism for performance failures during the last Christmaspeak season, in April Smith announced that the company would make a series of investments to ensureit was capable of handling future expected growth, particularly during the pre-Christmas peakseason, and that these investments would be financed by double-digit price rises.
Yodel at the time defended its performance last winter, arguing that the company haddelivered 20 million parcels in the four weeks leading up to Christmas, successfully completing99.9 per cent of deliveries by the end of Christmas Eve.
In yesterday’s letter to customers, Stead concluded: “We continually review ourorganisational structure, to ensure it is effective, and I am very confident that we will continueto build on the huge amount of work we have already done to transform Yodel over the past year. Wewant to continue working with you, to ensure our service proposition meets your ongoingrequirements and that we provide you and your customers with the best possible service.”
