Royal Mail, DPD and Hermes have announced substantial investment
in operations and the creation of hundreds of new jobs.
Royal Mail announced a £75 million, four-year investment
programme for its UK express parcels business, Parcelforce
Worldwide, creating 1,000 new UK jobs.
The expansion is part of Royal Mail Group’s strategy to grow its
parcels businesses in the UK and overseas, take advantage of the
growing popularity of online shopping and “convert the rise
in parcel volumes into profitable growth”, said chief
executive Moya Greene in a statement. In the last reported
financial year, Royal Mail Group’s parcels businesses accounted
for 48 percent (£4.2 billion) of total revenues (excluding
Post Office Ltd).
As a result of the new investment, a new parcel processing centre
will be opened in Chorley in autumn 2013 in addition to the
existing hub in Coventry. Two new depots will also be opened in
Cornwall and Hampshire with a further nine existing depots either
expanded or moved to larger sites over the next four years.
Further, there will be a significant investment in IT as legacy
systems are replaced.
In October, parcel company DPD confirmed an investment of
£4.3 million in three new state-of-the art depots in London,
Southampton and Dundee. The new depots, which collectively are
expected to create up to 150 new jobs, will expand DPD’s capacity
to respond to a significant increase in b-to-c volumes driven by
its one-hour time slot service, Predict.
More recently, on 6th November, DPD said it was investing
£175 million to meet the growing demand from online
shopping. The investment will see DPD build a new £100
million parcel sorting hub and refurbish two other hubs to
increase the number of parcels it can process each night. The
programme will also create 1,500 new full-time jobs.
New jobs are also on the cards at Hermes, which announced on 8th
November that it is preparing for a 25 percent year-on-year
increase in parcel volumes during the peak Christmas shopping
period. Investment in its operations includes the creation of 480
temporary jobs and the introduction of an additional 500 courier
rounds.
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