British mail, parcels and logistics group DX has announced plans to spend £35 million on a new hub in central England.
The company said in a stock exchange release that it has reached agreement to buy a 44 acre site in the West Midlands, with the investment sum covering the land purchase and the facility development. The hub is due to be completed over the next 2-3 years.
The hub, whose location was not disclosed, is intended to replace the group’s current sites at Willenhall, some 3.5 miles from the new location, “securing existing employment and creating substantial additional capacity, enhanced customer service levels and increased efficiencies”.
The group, now using the 'Delivered Exactly' tagline, also recently took another move towards ‘One DX’ by transferring the business activities and assets of two subsidiaries DX Freight and DX Secure to ‘DX Network Services’ in order to consolidate all its UK trading activities into one company.
DX Freight is the former Nightfreight business acquired in 2012. However, the group admitted in its 2014 results that “there is still much to be done in turning around this business which suffered from years of under-investment and numerous management changes before we acquired it”. Under a three-year turnaround programme of “investment and transformation”, DX Freight is being integrated to create ‘OneDX’ in order to “establish a stronger platform for long term growth”.
For the year to 30 June 2014, DX reported that total revenues increased by 2.1% to £312 million, with revenues from ongoing activities increasing by 4% to £304.2 million. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were £34.4 million, similar to those achieved in 2013.
