French express operator Chronopost has continued its B2C expansion by buying into specialisthome delivery company Colizen.
Chronopost has bought a 40% stake in the Paris-based firm which offers delivery by appointmentin the French capital and surrounding region, and will expand the offering into a new nationwideservice.
Launched in 2009, Colizen offers a scheduled time-window of two hours for deliveries between07.00 and 22.00 from Monday to Saturday, and 09.00 to 13.00 on Sundays. The company also providessame-day deliveries in the evening of orders made during working hours.
According to Chronopost, Colizen has quickly become the leader in the French premium market fordeliveries by appointment and currently delivers some 2,500 items a day in Paris.
Chronopost managing director Martin Piechowski said: “By investing in Colizen, we are making abet for the future. Thanks to our operational partnership we will be able to take advantage ofexisting know-how and can be the first to offer a nationwide delivery service by appointment.”
Jérôme Do and Fabien Esnoult, the two founders of Colizen, explained: “Formore than a year all our major clients or future clients have been asking us to extend our serviceto all major French conurbations and even European ones.” Since the company itself was too small todo this alone, they decided to team up with Chronopost which could offer rapid deliveries, theyadded.
Well-known Colizen clients include Nespresso, Aquarelle, MisterGoodDeal, Fnac andBrandalley.
Chronopost last month also made its services more flexible by introducing a new “interactivesolution” enabling recipients to re-direct a shipment to an alternative delivery address before thefirst delivery attempt as part of its MyChrono offering.
Consumers receive an SMS or e-mail on the evening before the planned delivery and if desired caninstruct Chronopost to deliver the item to a nearby collection point such as a Pickup outlet, aChronopost agency or a post office.
