Start-up operator Doddle and delivery firm Nightline plan to rapidly expand their respective clickand collect parcel networks in the UK and Ireland, top executives have disclosed.
Doddle will press ahead with ambitious plans for a large network at railway stations acrossBritain while Nightline plans to launch a store-based parcel shop network in Ireland to complementits self-service terminals, they told the European Post and Parcel Services conference in Viennalast week.
In the UK, start-up ‘parcel shop’ operator Doddle has quickly built up a network of 34stores at railway stations since its launch last September and wants to keep expanding fast. CEOTim Robinson said: “We believe we need 250 – 300 stores within the next 18-24 months.” There areabout 2,500 railway stations in Britain.
Explaining the start-up’s business model, Robinson said railway stations are well-knownlocations typically surrounded by a dense urban population, and intensively-used, especially byBritain’s large number of regular commuters. “Commuters are time-starved but cash-rich, and are bigonline shoppers,” he said. “Train stations are an obvious place to build up a PUDO network.”
Doddle aims to position itself as a ‘carrier-neutral’ network, accepting parcels from onlineretailers such as Amazon and ASOS, high-street brands as well as different parcel carriers. “We arethe outsourced click and collect network for the UK,” Robinson declared. Consumers sign up for aDoddle account, can select a Doddle store as their alternative delivery address, and are notifiedwhen their parcel is ready for collection.
One USP, according to the former railway manager, is the large storage capacity of theDoddle stores, which typically measure up to 140 sqm. About two-thirds of this space is used forstorage, meaning carriers can use them as mini-depots. Moreover, some even have changing rooms sothat consumers can try on clothes or shoes and send them back straight away if necessary.
Robinson said that the company “is investing heavily” in the network given forecasts of aboom in ‘click and collect’ parcels in the coming years. “It’s a huge opportunity,” he said.
In response to CEP-Research questions, he added: “It’s a build and they will come model. Youneed deep pockets. It’s about volume. For example, Amazon will bring 50-60 parcels to a store, not5-6 parcels. It’s more of a depot than a retail system.” Doddle is aiming to break even by 2018, hedisclosed.
Doddle is a joint venture between Network Rail, which runs Britain’s railway network andstations, and entrepreneur Lloyd Dorfman, creator of the Travelex Group, the world’s largestnon-bank foreign exchange business. Network Rail is investing £24 million into the business.
In Ireland, Nightline aims to profit from the expected growth of the country’s onlineshopping market from €5.9 billion last year to €12.7 billion in 2020, founder and CEO John Tuohysaid. The company, with 700 employees, 450 vehicles and 13 depots, claims a 45 per cent share ofthe Irish parcels delivery market and is targeting turnover of €55 million this year.
Nightline has already set up a lockers network under the Parcel Motel brand, using terminalssupplied by Poland’s InPost, with 100 locations and 8,000 individual lockers. The company has sofar signed up some 150,000 subscribers, representing about eight per cent of all internet users inthe country.
Cross-border deliveries from the UK make up a large part of Irish e-commerce, Tuohy pointedout. Nightline is catering for this business by offering a ‘virtual UK address’ in Belfast,Northern Ireland, with cross-border delivery to a Parcel Motel paid directly by the recipient.Returns are also offered from the Parcel Motel machines via Belfast back to the UK in cooperationwith Collect Plus, the British click and collect business.
The next step will be to launch an extensive store-based click and collect operation inIreland. “We are launching Parcel Motel Point. It will be Collect Plus with a different brand,”Tuohy told the conference. “I think click and collect is the future,” he declared.
The new network will also be integrated into the company’s Parcel Pilot app, which givesrecipients control of their deliveries with various options for delivery times and locations.
