The logistics company of the Barclay family has been merged into the startup that purchased Tuffnells from administration last year.
Yodel is one of Britain’s largest parcels delivery services. It will combine with Shift to exit the corporate empire that Sir Frederick Barclay and his late twin brother, Sir David Barclay built over the past 30 years.
Shift was founded six years ago by Jacob Corlett. It rose to prominence last June when it purchased Tuffnells, a parcel delivery company. It purchased the Tuffnells’ website, trademarks and telephone numbers for £500,000.
Corlett, 29 said he is “incredibly proud” about Shift’s rapid growth during a time of turmoil for the logistics industry. The collapse of Tuffnells cost the taxpayers of £10,5 million in losses and more than 2,000 jobs.
Yodel generates £561.8million in revenues from more than 190,000,000 deliveries per year. Sky News reported that it competes with Royal Mail Evri , Amazon Logistics, and .
Mike Hancox (57), the chief executive officer of Yodel said: “Our clients have always been our top priority, and the transaction announced allows us to provide continuity for them as well as employees and other stakeholders.
Yodel’s operations will be merged with Shift through a company owned by investors, including Solano Partners. Jon Edirmanasinghe (39), a founder partner of Solano said: “We have seen the Shift Team successfully acquire and relaunch Tuffnells and believe that the enlarged group will house all three to create a disruptive logistic powerhouse.”
Evri is one of Yodel’s main rivals. They have hired bankers to provide advice on the sale of their business. Advent International, an American private equity company, purchased the group in 2020, and saddled it with debts exceeding £1 billion. Advent paid a £762million dividend in 2022.
Evri has sales of approximately £1.5 billion. However, the company suffered a loss before tax of £77 millions in the year ending February 2023 due to higher debt costs. The courier holds a 18% market share and delivers 720 millions parcels per year.
Lloyds Bank seized the media assets of the Barclays family after talks broke down over debts totalling £1.2 billion. Lloyds Bank sent receivers to seize control of The Daily Telegraph (and The Sunday Telegraph) and The Spectator. However, the titles were temporarily returned to Barclays following the family’s refinancing the loans using funding from Abu Dhabi. The government could still try to pull out of the deal due to concerns about Abu Dhabi owning a British national paper. The Barclay brothers first purchased the Telegraph titles in 2004, but they may seek to unwind the deal.
In recent years, the Barclay Family has accelerated asset sales. The Spectator’s Westminster headquarters was sold and they are now trying to sell The Lady Beatrice. The price has dropped from €16.9m to €2.9m in the last few weeks. The family owns Very the retailer.
Alistair Barclay (34), a senior family member, was served with a petition for bankruptcy over allegations that he had defaulted on a loan of nearly £1 million. The family claims that this issue has nothing to do with their corporate interests.
Jacob Corlett founded Shift six years ago with the intention of shaking up logistics. Now he’s signed his largest deal to date (Helen Cahill).
Corlett, who left school at 16 years old, attended the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy. This initiative was set up by the Dragons’ Den actor to learn about how to run a company before he went out on his own.
He created a platform of technology that allows delivery drivers to take short detours while on the road to pick up items. The platform uses artificial intelligent to find drivers who are best suited to complete specific jobs, based on routes that have already been registered in the software.
Jacob Corlett, a Dragons’ Den star who runs the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy initiative, attended to learn about how to run a successful business.
Shift expanded its business through a series acquisitions. The first was the purchase of Courier Direct in Bristol at the end 2020. The company has also announced that it will buy Techlogico in June 2021 for £750,000.
Corlett began its buying spree last year, when it acquired Movinga, an international home-moving company with headquarters in Berlin. It also purchased Tuffnells assets for £500,000. The entrepreneur claimed he wanted to build a company that could disrupt both the consumer and corporate logistics markets “through cutting edge AI-driven route decisions”.
Shift counts large retailers like Homebase and Ikea among its clients. Its merger with Yodel is expected to expand its business by 190 million deliveries per year across 50 sites. Corlett has moved away from purchasing regional couriers and is now competing with much larger rivals like Evri, Royal Mail and Royal Mail for space.