CollectPlus has reported a 91% growth in demand for its click and collect services over its latest financial year. It says the lift reflects growing customer demand for the service across UK retail.
The delivery company provides click and collect services, alongside returns and parcel deliveries, via its network of local stores, which grew to 5,800 in number during the year to March 31. Following 17% growth in client numbers, CollectPlus , jointly owned by Yodel and PayPoint, now works with more than 300 retailers, from John Lewis and Boohoo to Marks & Spencer, Asos and House of Fraser. Parcel volumes grew during the year by 39% to 18.8m.
Neil Ashworth, chief executive of CollectPlus, said the company had grown profitability after first reporting profits last year. “We are particularly pleased with the growth of our Click & Collect service; enthusiasm for the delivery option amongst online shoppers continues to go from strength to strength and our customers now increasingly look for CollectPlus at the point of checkout when shopping online.
“As the market has matured, so too have the needs of our customers and our growth over the last twelve months has been underpinned by our ability to understand and anticipate those needs. We have focused on refining and widening the breadth of our store network so that people can access CollectPlus services in the places that they live, shop and work. We have added shopping centres, universities and further high street locations to our network and I’m pleased to say that we remain the largest, independent store-based parcel delivery and returns service in the UK.
“Over the next 12 months our focus is to continue to grow our store network in locations that are most convenient to our customers, develop new and innovative retail partnerships and ensure that we stand out from the crowd in an increasingly competitive market by putting our customers and their needs at the heart of our service offer.”
The update came as joint venture partner PayPoint announced revenues of £218.5m in the year, 3% up on the previous year. Pre-tax profits of £49.6m were 7.7% ahead of last time.
