Sameday courier firm CitySprint agrees largest acquisition yet

UK sameday courier company CitySprint is continuing its acquisition trail with plans to acquire the courier operations of London-based Lewis Day. CitySprint, which has snapped up eight regional courier firms in the past three years, said today it has entered into an agreement for its latest target, which would hand it an “extensive” fleet and 17 offices around England and South Wales.

Although terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, it represents the largest deal done to date by CitySprint, which has already made three acquisitions in 2011.

The sale of Lewis Day’s operations will, separately, see its passenger car operations acquired by the UK’s largest minicab company, Addison Lee.

CitySprint said taking on Lewis Day’s network would give it 35 service centres around the UK and more than 2,000 couriers, handling around 15,000 transactions each day.

Integration of the operations is expected to take place over the coming months.

Patrick Gallagher said making acquisitions was a key part of his company’s growth strategy as it seeks to be the UK’s largest sameday logistics provider, and that taking on Lewis Day’s operations would expand CitySprint’s geographic spread through the UK.

Technology

For Lewis Day clients, Gallagher said the acquisition would mean an improved service, with the full GPS-based tracking that CitySprint introduced five years ago.

Gallagher said: “Today’s acquisition is a major milestone in our strategy of adding further scale and reach to our national business.

“We will quickly integrate the new fleet into our existing operations and will be deploying our market-leading technology such as real-time GPS tracking and online booking to enhance the service to clients,” said the CitySprint CEO.

In a statement, Lewis Day told its customers that the transition to new ownership would be “carefully designed” to ensure business continuity. “For the moment, it is business as usual,” the company added.

Gallagher said CitySprint would continue to grow organically as well as by acquisition, growing its parcel business through service quality supported by technology.

CitySprint reported a profit of GBP 3.9m in the 2010 calendar year, on a GBP 61m turnover that grew 17.4% compared to 2009.