Yodel extends links with cycling world through Tour of Britain

UK parcel delivery firm Yodel is sponsoring this year’s Tour of Britain, the largest professional cycling race in the UK, which started at the weekend in Peebles, Scotland. Yodel is the official logistics partner for this year’s Tour, which it describes as the largest free-to-attend sporting event in the country.

The week-long event takes in cities and towns across England, Scotland and Wales before concluding in central London on Sunday.

Yodel had been involved with the event last year, but this year becomes one of its lead sponsors. Its branding is featuring prominently throughout the Tour, and each stage of the rate will include three intermediate Yodel Sprints, with the daily leader of the Sprints Classification being awarded the official Yodel Sprints jersey.

The sponsorship comes as part of a wider link-up between Yodel and cycling – the company is the logistics partner for a number of major cycling retailers, including Halfords, Evans Cycles and Merida Bicycles, delivering 122,000 cycling shipments each year for those three accounts alone.

The company said cycling has seen a “massive surge” in popularity in recent years, with around 13m cyclists now in the UK. Sales of bicycles grew 28% between 2009 and 2010 according to a London School of Economics study.

Yodel said thousands of fans were expected to watch the race, with 400,000 expected to follow events on television, to catch teams and individual racers including British favourites Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas.

Yodel’s Chief Executive, Jonathan Smith, said: “For Yodel the event has a number of synergies with our own business. Like the Tour we are a national, British company with a focus on local delivery, handling over 200 million parcels per year.

“Like the race, speed and teamwork is crucial to ensure an efficient service and Yodel also has its own green agenda which makes this alignment with cycling a winning combination.”