Yodel gearing up for record Mother’s Day deliveries
British home delivery company Yodel is gearing itself up for a record weekend, as the UK celebrates its Mothering Sunday. The company has conducted market research via polling firm Populus, which has suggested two thirds of UK people will be spending more on Mother’s Day gifts than they did for last month’s Valentine’s Day.
Yodel is preparing to deliver twice the volume of flowers to mothers than it did to Valentines last month
The firm will be running special Sunday delivery services to cater to flower deliveries, as increasing levels of e-commerce activity is expected to fuel major growth in volumes in a record year for online flowers and gift sales.
The research, based on a poll of 2,000 people, also suggested that flower deliveries will be required because 28% of people will not be visiting their mothers in person because of the distance involved, while 10% suggest high fuel prices will keep them away.
Yodel told Post&Parcel it is anticipating last year’s 105,737 Mother’s Day deliveries to increase to more than 175,000 this year.
The poll suggested UK residents will spend on average GBP 30 on gifts for their mothers, ranging from GBP 50 in the East Midlands down to GBP 20 in the South West.
Commenting on the poll, Jonathan Smith, the Yodel chief executive, said: “It’s a special day of the year and a chance to treat mums to a gift, which more and more people are doing online. Our drivers are gearing up to delivery thousands of bouquets this weekend.”
Hatfield-based Yodel, which acquired the domestic operations of DHL Express in the UK in 2010, has a network of more than 5,000 vans, handling around 200m parcels during a full year.
