InPost acquires majority stake in home delivery service Yodel

InPost has expanded its presence in the UK market through the acquisition of local home delivery service Yodel. The European logistics firm snapped up 95.5 percent of Judge Logistics Ltd (JLL) share capital, the parent company of Yodel Deliver Network, while PayPoint retained a 4.5 percent stake.

With this, InPost says it has moved up to become the “third-largest agnostic logistics player” in the UK, helping to “dramatically” accelerate its growth. By combining Yodel’s capabilities, InPost intends to scale its operations “significantly”, expanding its service offering and providing “greater convenience to retailers and customers”.

Yodel’s acquisition comes as part of a debt-to-equity conversation. As such, InPost has converted its existing loan to JLL into equity and has provided the firm with a financing amounting to 106 million pounds in the form of convertible loan notes. InPost is aiming for the deal to be EBITDA accretive within one year.

In a release, Rafal Brzoska, founder and CEO of InPost, said: “This acquisition marks a pivotal milestone in InPost's journey to revolutionise the UK delivery market as well as the group's pan-European presence. We have just fast-forwarded five years of organic expansion in the UK and it is a clear reflection of our long-term commitment to this market, a market where we see enormous opportunity for growth. Our logistics model has transformed delivery in other European markets, and with this acquisition, we are now well positioned to do the same here.”