ANC's parcel deal breaks new ground

ANC is to distribute urgent next-day parcels in the UK for SDS, the distribution arm of the Irish post office, An Post.
In return SDS will handle all ANC’s deliveries in the republic, giving the parcel company access to a countrywide network which includes Ireland’s most advanced automated sorting centre in Dublin and four other regional sorting centres located in Athlone, Portlaoise, Cork and Kilbarrack.

ANC claims the groundbreaking deal could help shape the future of the parcel industry. “This is the first time a private carrier in Europe has formed an agreement with a state-owned postal company for UK delivery, ” the company said.

Seamus McGowan, sales and marketing manager for SDS, said: “We handle 10m parcels a year of which 400,000 are for the UK. They all went with Parcelforce [the parcels arm of the UK Post Office] previously.

Parcelforce is still in there for next-day and deferred services, but ANC gives us time-sensitive pre-9am, pre-10am and pre-noon delivery.”

Access to the more rural parts of Ireland has proved problematic in the past for UK carriers, but the new service agreement gives ANC access to more than 1,900 post offices as potential collection and drop-off points.

Integration between the two companies is well under way and IT systems are already operating jointly, allowing customers to track their parcels online from either ANC’s or SDS’s website.

Mark Mitchell, ANC business development director, said:

“We both had our own dedicated charter flights, but ours was almost empty inbound and so was theirs into Ireland. We were literally bringing back just a handful of parcels a day.

We have been able to take one aircraft out of the air immediately.”

The three-tonne capacity Shorts could be replaced by a larger aircraft before the peak Christmas season, he said.

ANC shipped 5,400 consignments to Ireland in May compared with 3,200 in May last year. Mitchell said the target for next year was 10,000 a month, which would make the company the leading independent.

“We were nervous about attacking the business-to-home market in Ireland in the past because of the fragmented nature of the market and the fact that they have no postcodes, ” said Mitchell. “But SDS has the largest delivery infrastructure, so we anticipate good contract wins.”

Posted: 25/06/2001
IFW