French deliver E18m for new Interlink facility
LA POSTE FRANCE, the French post office, is investing E18m to build a distribution hub for Interlink, an Irish company that is owned by the French operator. The firm aims to fill the void created by the closure last year of An Post’s loss-making SDS parcel-
delivery service.
The 70,000-sq-ft sorting facility near Athlone, will double the delivery capacity for Interlink, which expects to generate revenues of E40m this year and make more than 15m drops.
Interlink, which has the lucrative contract to deliver all Dell computers in Ireland ordered online, has 33 depots around the country and employs 600 people.
It is the biggest parcel-delivery company in the Irish market since the demise of SDS. The firm was set up 20 years ago and was bought by La Poste’s Geopost parcel-delivery arm in 2000.
According Brendan O’Neill, Interlink’s chief executive, sales increased by 30% last year after the closure of SDS.
“We had been looking at growth of 15% each year up to then, but we got a bounce of double that when SDS closed,” he said.
Interlink is financing the new hub with E9m of its own cash and a loan from its French parent. It includes E7m worth of new machinery, which will allow it to process up to 55,000 parcels each night.
