Tuffnells Parcels Express has gone into administration, with more than 2,000 staff to be made redundant.
The specialist in handling items of irregular dimension and weight has appointed joint administrators at Interpath Advisory after failing to secure new funding.
All transport hubs and depots have been closed as a result, and Interpath have reported that 2,200 employees, working across its 33 UK depots, will be made redundant – just 128 staff have been retained.
The Sheffield-headquartered company returned to private ownership in 2020 when it was acquired by Palm Bidco Limited. Since then, it has had to navigate a number of pressures which have impacted trading, including Covid-19, high cost inflation and an increasingly competitive market.
Interpath stressed that after a number of options were explored in the past few weeks, the directors took the decision to seek the appointment of administrators.
“Tuffnells is one of the UK’s most recognisable logistics companies, providing delivery services to over 4,000 businesses across the UK under its ‘The Big Green Parcel Machine’ brand,” said Rick Harrison, managing director at Interpath Advisory and joint administrator.
“Unfortunately, the highly competitive nature of the UK parcel delivery market, coupled with significant inflation across the Company’s fixed cost base in recent times, has resulted in the Company experiencing intense pressure on cashflow.”
Joint administrator Howard Smith explained that customers should be aware all the firm’s transport hubs and depots were now closed. It advised B2B customers of Tuffnells to log into their customer portal on the company’s website in order to receive further information on how to retrieve their parcels.
“Our team will be making contact with customers over the coming days to arrange parcel collection,” Smith added.
