Firm goes shopping for rival

HOME Delivery Network, the Oldham-based logistics arm of the Shop Direct home shopping giant, has itself gone on a shopping spree.

It has reached agreement with Deutsche Post DHL to acquire its UK domestic business-to-business and business-to-consumer parcel delivery operations, DHL Domestic.

The combined businesses will have annual sales of more than £600 million and will deliver more than 180 million parcels a year.

Neither business will divulge how much HDN, which is owned by the secretive Barclay brothers, has paid for DHL, which has 6,000 employees. HDN has around 5,700 employees.

Angela Carus, who runs the HDN operation at Linney Lane, Shaw, and also has responsibility for HDN businesses in Glasgow and Little Hulton, told Chronicle Business that the coming together of these two logistics companies will create a first-class service for customers.

She added: “The combination of HDN and DHL Domestic will create a sustainable delivery business in which customers will continue to experience high quality standards of service while benefiting from a broader product offering.

“HDN believes that the two businesses will be ideally positioned to exploit the continued growth in a sector that is being driven by the expansion of e-commerce.”

HDN is intending to make a ‘sizeable investment’ to ensure that the businesses will achieve their long-term prospects, although there will be some depot closures where there is duplication.

DHL Domestic will continue to trade under the current name until the two businesses are fully integrated.

Brian Gaunt, HDN chief executive, said: “This transaction is great news for customers of both HDN and DHL Domestic.

“The growth of e-commerce has transformed our marketplace and with it the demands of our customers.”

HDN has more than 550 full-time and long-term agency staff working out of the Shaw site delivering parcels and goods for Shop Direct (formerly Littlewoods), Amazon, Tesco Direct, Argos, Sainsbury and ASOS, among others.

The site has a capacity for around 280,000 parcels each day, but is currently running at around 140,000.

In the pre-Christmas period the daily average was 250,000.

Ms Carus (36), who was born in Oldham but now commutes from Doncaster, took over as general manager six months ago. She has spent her business career in the logistics industry.