La Poste subsidiary GeoPost has been given the green light to buy into a crowdsourced-style French food home delivery service and to take full control of its joint venture in Russia.
The French postal group said its Board of Directors has authorised GeoPost to acquire a majority stake in Resto In, a virtual market place for restaurants offering quick home delivery solutions, and also to buy a further 50% of Armadillo Holding GmbH which holds 100% of DPD Russia.
The food e-commerce market, which is currently booming in France and Europe, is a real opportunity for GeoPost to diversify. All sector stakeholders, from non-specialised groups to start-ups focusing on city centre delivery and mass retail companies, are all fighting to establish a foothold in this market, La Poste pointed out.
It is against this backdrop that GeoPost has bought an 80% share in Resto In, a virtual market place for restaurants offering quick home delivery solutions. Created in 2006 and well known in its sector (restaurant marketplace with delivery service), Resto In has created services offering added value to customers, with a young and dynamic team.
According to its website, Resto In is active in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Brussels, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Hamburg and London. It delivers meals for 177 restaurants in Paris as well as other shops, about 100 restaurants in London and more than 50 in most of the other cities. The company is targeting revenues of €16 million this year, according to French online magazine Le Journal du Net.
This investment in Resto In constitutes the second stage of GeoPost's development in the food industry. Chronopost, France’s leading specialist for express delivery of parcels weighing up to 30kg to businesses and individual customers, has in fact been offering next-day before 1pm express delivery solutions for dried, fresh and frozen food products anywhere in France for several months now.
As well as investing in Resto In, GeoPost is also supporting the development of Stuart, a French business specialised in urgent urban delivery services. Created at the end of 2014 by the managers of Resto In, Stuart developed a mobile application for stores and businesses who need to deliver parcels to specific locations. Thanks to the Stuart application, clients can have their order delivered by a professional courier in less than an hour.
La Poste said the minority stake, alongside the founders of Resto In, will allow the group to test the urgent urban delivery market, in addition to its core business delivery rounds, as well as to gain experience in the Uber-style business of using crowdsourced contractors as delivery persons.
By investing in Resto In and Stuart, Le Groupe La Poste has chosen a partner who is committed to developing innovative urgent delivery services with the desire, together with La Poste, to contribute to creating a responsible model for the sector.
“In the future, this social model will have to bring together technological progress and customer services, economic growth for businesses and social progress benefiting the couriers involved in this activity. Thus, La Poste will also be able to contribute to the wider picture of creating a social model for these sectors.”
Lastly, the Le Groupe La Poste Board of Directors also authorised GeoPost to enter into discussions with its Turkish partners with a view to buying an additional 50% share in Armadillo Holding GmbH, in which GeoPost already had a 50% share. This acquisition will allow GeoPost to consolidate its position in Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Le Groupe La Poste has grown substantially through GeoPost, becoming the 2nd largest express delivery operator in Europe with revenue of €4.9 billion in 2014.
