The UPS Store Debuts More Than 3,000 Strong

Starting today, more than 3,000 Mail Boxes Etc.® (MBE) locations around the United States will begin re-branding to The UPS Store™, in the process extending affordable shipping rates to consumers and small businesses.

The re-branding, scheduled for completion by September, will be the largest such effort in retail and franchise history. It was launched in Seattle today with the opening of the first official location under The UPS Store name and look. Additionally, a 10-week TV advertising campaign is airing across the U.S.

The unveiling follows UPS’s March 25 announcement of a global branding initiative featuring the first redesign of the UPS logo in more than 40 years. The UPS Store locations will be among the first, and most visible, places consumers will begin to see the new logo as UPS’s new look is implemented.

The name change and service initiatives follow the overwhelming acceptance of the change by MBE franchisees across the country. The owners of nearly 90 percent of MBE centers, or more than 3,000 of the approximately 3,300 U.S. locations, elected to re-brand as The UPS Store following a year of testing and a month-long series of franchise area meetings across the country. As the leading retail channel for UPS, The UPS Store will provide consumers with convenient neighborhood locations and professional service, along with low UPS shipping prices.

“Since UPS acquired MBE in 2001, we have been working to carve out a strategy that would maximize the combination of these two best-in-class businesses,” said Stuart Mathis, president of Mail Boxes Etc., Inc., a UPS subsidiary. “By pooling MBE’s expertise in retail business services with UPS’s expertise in shipping and other expanded capabilities, The UPS Store offers an extensive portfolio of products to our franchisees and their customers.”

Beginning last fall, MBE centers in six markets across the country tested multiple branding concepts along with UPS direct pricing. Customers responded favorably to the low shipping prices, but it was The UPS Store name that fueled the strongest consumer response. In December 2002, UPS-branded stores, on average, saw a 70 percent increase in UPS shipping over the previous year. Based on those test results, UPS and MBE announced on Feb. 10 a plan to allow approximately 3,300 MBE locations in the United States to re-brand as The UPS Store and offer lower prices for UPS shipping services.

“The UPS Store is a significant step in UPS’s strategy to strengthen its brand presence and expand access to our services for small businesses and individual consumers throughout the U.S.,” said Rocky Romanella, vice president of UPS retail services. “The UPS Store extends competitive UPS pricing along with the outstanding customer service that has become synonymous with MBE franchisees over the past 20 years.”

“This is an unrivaled combination of convenience, reliability and price,” added Mathis. “We feel The UPS Store will transform the retail shipping industry.”

“The franchising sector has never seen re-branding on this scale,” said Don DeBolt, president of the International Franchise Association. “To see one of the world’s largest companies working alongside a leading franchiser is historic on its own.”

There are no plans to change the trade name of MBE’s international locations. Currently, MBE has more than 1,000 units outside the U.S.

The UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. together comprise the world’s largest franchise network of retail shipping, postal and business service centers, with more than 4,000 locations around the world. Mail Boxes Etc., Inc., a UPS company, franchises The UPS Store and MBE retail locations. In the United States, The UPS Store and MBE locations are independently owned and operated by licensed franchisees of Mail Boxes Etc., Inc. Outside the United States, locations are owned and operated by MBE master licensees or their franchisees.