HubEurope teams up with Hermes in Jersey
HubEurope has teamed up with Hermes to offer the first alternative home delivery service for Jersey-based fulfilment houses and retailers looking to ship products to the UK. The company will use Hermes’ position to compete with postal operator Jersey Post for 60m parcels and packets delivered to the UK each year.
The J+2 (Jersey + 2 days) solution will provide a 48-hour, fully tracked service to addresses across the UK, with 94% of all packages delivered first time.
HubEurope will target businesses using Jersey for offshore fulfilment that takes advantage of Low Value Consignment Relief privileges, allowing items under £18 to be sold to an EU address without the addition of VAT to the price. This will include retailers and fulfilment houses selling a range of low value products such as CDs, DVDs, books and bulbs.
The first company using the HubEurope and Hermes partnership will be Flying Brands for its mail order Gardening Direct operation. Following an initial four-week trial, more than one million items made up of bulbs and plants will be delivered to the UK each year. Packages will be shipped to Southampton via ferry on a daily basis. From there they will be transported to Hermes’ national hub in Nuneaton for onward delivery to the company’s regional depot network and more than 7,500 lifestyle couriers.
Christopher Bee, director of HubEurope commented: “Our partnership with Hermes will enable us to provide a highly competitive delivery solution when compared to the existing service offered by Jersey Post and Royal Mail. Not only will we provide cost effective two-day delivery for unsorted packages, but also include full online tracking, as well as signature captured for more than 50% of deliveries despite essentially being a non-POD service.”
Carole Woodhead, CEO of Hermes in the UK said: “We are continually looking for like-minded companies such as HubEurope to develop partnership opportunities that will ultimately provide value to high street, catalogue and Internet retailers. By teaming up with HubEurope, retailers and fulfilment houses based in Jersey can now take advantage of our courier network, which combines a quality doorstep delivery, with a friendly and local approach.”
HubEurope was recently awarded a licence by the Jersey competition Regulatory Authority for the provision of postal services to the island. The licence allows the company to deliver postal services to the fulfilment sector, starting with the packet market this year and large letters from January 2012.
