Royal Mail is ramping up its same-day delivery capabilities with a deal to acquire eCourier, a leading same day delivery company operating mainly in the Greater London area and offering nationwide distribution.
The combination of eCourier and Royal Mail Sameday®, Royal Mail’s existing courier business, will create a significant player in the national same day delivery market, the British postal group announced today. Royal Mail provides a nationwide same day service through its Royal Mail Sameday® courier services and partner companies but only has a limited footprint in London.
Royal Mail said the acquisition of eCourier, for an undisclosed sum, supports its strategic objective to enhance its parcel offering, expand its network and capture more value in the fastest growing segments of the UK parcels market. Royal Mail is already a leading player in other key parcels segments like business-to-business and business-to-consumer.
Specialising in urgent courier services, eCourier generated revenue of approximately £19 million in the year ending April 2015. It employs over 100 staff and operates nearly 400 couriers from depots at Heathrow, West London and the City.
In addition to its core services, bespoke divisions also provide retail, medical and supply chain support. The large fleet of pushbikes, motorcycles and small vans are controlled using state of the art communications, an excellent customer service team and “Larry” a bespoke piece of software which can monitor vehicles, provide journey time predictions for customers and suggest the most suitable courier for each consignment.
Moya Greene, Chief Executive Officer, Royal Mail, said: “Today’s announcement marks another milestone in our strategic objective of increasing our presence in growth areas of the parcels market. Same day deliveries are already one of the fastest growing segments of the UK parcels market.”
eCourier’s main shareholder and CEO, Ian Oliver, who will remain in his managerial role, added: "This association with Royal Mail will further strengthen eCourier’s reputation within the same day courier industry and provides a platform for us to roll out a nationwide network. We are very excited about the future."
Same day delivery is a premium segment of the parcels market, with an estimated value of over £500 million, and growing rapidly at around 4-5% per year, according to Royal Mail. While it is principally a B2B market, the currently modest B2C segment is expanding rapidly, driven by the e-commerce trends and the increasing consumer demand for faster fulfilment.
