British delivery company Evri will become a ‘parcels billionaire’ with the merger of DHL eCommerce UK and the addition of DHL Group as a minority shareholder under a major strategic partnership announced today (May 14).
Coming just weeks after InPost acquired struggling Yodel, the latest deal intensifies UK market consolidation and will strengthen Evri as a leading competitor to Royal Mail and other delivery companies, including DPD, UPS and FedEx. With over 800 million parcels a year, B2C specialist Evri is already seen as number two in the highly competitive British market.
Merger details
Under the partnership deal, Evri’s cost-effective and flexible courier offer will be complemented with the addition of DHL eCommerce’s premium van delivery network. Rebranded ‘Evri Premium – a network of DHL eCommerce’, this will remain a dedicated and secure, separate network that will offer fast, time-sensitive deliveries with enhanced shipping security protection for high-value and large items for B2B and B2C parcel services.
The new-look company will deliver more than one billion parcels a year with the addition of DHL eCommerce UK’s approx. 200 million annual parcels, as well as one billion letters through UK Mail. Their combined revenues were not disclosed. The combined group will have a team of over 30,000 couriers and van drivers, 12,000 colleagues and a fleet of 8,000 vehicles.
Following completion, Evri CEO Martijn de Lange will lead the combined business in the UK, with Stu Hill, currently CEO of DHL eCommerce UK, becoming MD of Evri’s Premium DHL network business. The DHL eCommerce UK executive team will also join the new group.
New shareholder
As part of the transaction, DHL Group will acquire “a significant minority stake” in Evri, although the exact size of this stake was not disclosed. Evri will continue to be majority owned by Apollo-managed funds, which acquired 100% ownership from Advert International and Germany’s Otto Group last July, in a reported £2.7 billion deal.
Evri has already grown strongly in recent years, increasing revenues by 15% to £1.7 billion and volumes at the same rate to 730 million in the financial year ending February 2024 when its pre-tax profit more than doubled to £119 million.
Service portfolio
