Record Christmas parcel volumes for CollectPlus

Over half a million parcels handled over the festive period

Strong year-on-year performance reflects Christmas retailer online successes CollectPlus, the innovative parcel service which enables consumers to send and return packages via their local corner shop, today announces record volumes of parcels handled within its network of over 4,500 corner shops, over the festive period.

The British parcel delivery company saw over half a million parcels returned and delivered through its network in the seven week period up to 5th January 2012, up over 250% compared to the same period in 2010.

CollectPlus also recorded an active start to 2012, as a result of customers returning unwanted Christmas goods and taking advantage of New Year sales, with Tuesday 3rd January recorded as the busiest day of the festive period.

The Christmas TV campaign from Shop Direct Group’s Very.co.uk brand encouraged consumers to use its Click & Collect service, which allows customers to pick up parcels from their local CollectPlus shop. This focus has contributed to CollectPlus now handling 1 in every 5 parcels sent to customers by Very.co.uk.

The convenience and long opening hours of the CollectPlus network was further proven on Christmas Eve, as customers used the service to pick-up last minute presents en route to visiting family and friends. Indeed, customers took full advantage of CollectPlus’ network of 400 petrol station forecourt stores, with one customer collection made after 1am on Christmas Day, demonstrating the usefulness of the network as people travelled within the UK. On the flipside, the first return on Christmas Day was recorded at 9.06am in Andover, 40 minutes earlier than in 2010.

Mark Lewis, CEO of Collect+ comments:

“With online sales being the success story of Christmas 2011, consumers are increasingly looking for delivery options that fit in with their busy lives. The soaring volumes CollectPlus experienced this Christmas demonstrates that customers are demanding ease and flexibility from retailers in delivery and returns. That convenience is why so many retailers are coming to us and why we’re experiencing this level of growth.

The last six months have been impressively strong for CollectPlus as more retailers and shoppers realise the benefits of our service. We now have over 100 retail brands taking advantage of our returns service and as we move into 2012, our next area of focus will be to further develop our Click & CollectPlus service, already successfully used over the Christmas period by House of Fraser, Very and M&MDirect, which allows consumers to pick up goods bought from retailers online from their local CollectPlus shop.”

CollectPlus’ impressive results further underscore its position as an attractive alternative to the Royal Mail’s parcel service. The innovative delivery and returns service doubled its parcel volumes in 2011 to handle over four million items a year, peaking at 125,000 parcels a week in the run upto Christmas. This strong growth has been a result of powerful demand from online and multi-channel retailers for its returns and delivery services.

CollectPlus, which is available through selected stores within the national PayPoint network, has expanded its number of participating shops by a fifth in the past six months , taking it to a third of the size of the Post Office’s parcel delivery estate. Unlike the Post Office, however, the majority of shops offering CollectPlus are open seven days a week and for longer than traditional opening hours.

CollectPlus is a joint venture between PayPoint, the UK’s leading retail payment network, and the UK’s leading parcel delivery company, Yodel.

ENDS

For more information or to speak to Mark Lewis of CollectPlus, please contact the CollectPlus Press Office on:

T: 0207 025 6500

E: collectplusteam@redconsultancy.com

About CollectPlus

CollectPlus is a delivery and returns service giving online shoppers greater freedom and flexibility with the choice of collecting and dropping off parcels at local convenience stores.

With 98% of CollectPlus outlets open seven days a week and, normally, early in the morning until late at night, the service offers online shoppers the option to pick up or drop off purchases at a time and place convenient to them. 82% of the UK population lives within a mile of a CollectPlus store in urban areas, and 83% within five miles in rural areas.

CollectPlus is a joint venture between PayPoint, the leading retail payment network, and the UK’s leading parcel delivery company, Yodel.

In 2011, CollectPlus has been named ‘Third Party Logistics Supplier’ of the year at the Retail Week Supply Chain awards; ‘Innovative Delivery Service’ at IMRG’s eCommerce Excellence Awards; and has been highly commended by Retail Systems for ‘Supply Chain Solution of the Year’.

About PayPoint
PayPoint is a leading international provider of convenient payments and value added services to major consumerservice organisations in the utility, housing, water, telecoms, media, financial services, transport, retail, ecommerce, gaming and public sectors.

PayPoint delivers payments and services through a uniquely strong combination of local shops, internet and mobile distribution channels and handles over £11 billion from 600 million transactions annually for more than 5,000 clients and merchants.

Retail networks
The PayPoint branded retail network in the UK numbers over 23,000 local shops (including Co-op, Spar, McColls, Costcutter, Sainsbury’s Local, One Stop, Londis and thousands of independents). CollectPlus, a joint venture with Yodel, provides a parcel collection and drop off service at more than 4,500 PayPoint retailers. Its ATM network numbers more than 2,500 ‘LINK’ branded machines across the UK, mainly in the same sites as PayPoint terminals.

In Romania, the branded retail network numbers over 6,500 terminals located in local shops, processing cash bill payments for utilities and mobile phone top-ups. In the Republic of Ireland, over 500 outlets in shops and credit unions process mobile top-ups and bill payments.

Internet
PayPoint.net is an internet payment service provider linking into all major UK acquiring banks to deliver secure online credit and debit card payments for over 5,500 web merchants. It offers a comprehensive set of products ranging from a transaction gateway through to a bureau service and FraudGuard, an advanced service to mitigate the risk of fraud.

PayByPhone
PayByPhone is a leading international provider of services to parking authorities allowing consumers to use their mobile phones to pay for their parking by credit or debit card. It has contracts in the UK, France, Canada and the USA.

PayPoint is widely recognised for its leadership in prepayment systems, smart technology and consumer service.

About Yodel
Home Delivery Network Ltd on 1 March 2010 purchased through its subsidiary company, Parcelpoint Ltd, the domestic B2B and B2C businesses of DHL Express (UK) Ltd and rebranded as Yodel in May 2010. The company delivers more than 200 million parcels per year with annual revenues of £650 million and is the secondlargest parcel delivery business in the UK after the Royal Mail.

Yodel operates from a national network of sort and service centres and has a fleet of over 5,000 vans.

The company is headquartered in Hatfield.