News / Evri gets 'Premium' boost from merger with DHL's UK ecommerce division

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UK customers of courier Evri are breathing a sigh of relief today, following the news that DHL’s UK ecommerce division will merge with the poorly rated company. 

DHL will take a “significant minority stake” in Evri, which according to analysis by Loadstar Premium, “serves the interests of buyer and seller alike”. 

Evri’s courier services will enjoy the benefits of DHL eCommerce’s van network as a new entity, Evri Premium, and is forecast to deliver more than  a billion parcels and a billion business letters each year. It will mark Evri’s first step into letters, via DHL’s UK Mail service.

Evri will also see its international capability expand via DHL’s European, US and Asian ecommerce networks. 

And the combined out-of-home, shop, and locker network parcel delivery and collection will be the UK’s largest, and will also offer a one-stop shop for SMEs for mail, lightweight, larger, secure, B2B, international and fulfilment services, it says. 

Evri CEO Martijn de Lange said the two businesses were “complementary”. 

“By combining Evri’s scale, innovation and DHL eCommerce’s best-in-class premium van network, we are creating the pre-eminent parcel delivery group in the UK. Over the past decade, Evri has grown ten-fold in size, and this transaction will further expand our access into the European and global ecommerce markets.” 

It’s not DHL’s first attempt to work with Evri, following a bid last year, which was pipped at the post by Apollo private equity in a £2.7bn deal in August. Another PE firm, Advent International, had bought Evri, then called Hermes, for €1bn in 2020. 

The merger looks set to boost both companies. As shown by Loadstar Premium, DHL’s UK ecommerce entity has been loss-making, according to 2022 and 2023 figures, while Evri is disliked by customers. 

“There was considerable variation between parcel operators,” said regulator Ofcom’s Post Monitoring Report last year, which added: “Amazon and DHL performed highly in all three areas, while Evri had the lowest levels of satisfaction with the contact process overall.

“While Evri has seen improved ratings across a number of key metrics in our 2024 survey responses, it remains, on average, the lowest-scoring delivery company on satisfaction with contact.” 

The group will have more than 30,000 couriers and van drivers, 12,000 other colleagues, and a fleet of 8,000 vehicles. 

Evri chairman and Apollo partner Alex van Hoek said: “This is a tremendous milestone in Evri’s journey, and we are delighted to welcome a global leader like DHL as a strategic partner and shareholder. By embracing technology and innovation, Evri has grown from strength to strength in a dynamic ecommerce market. With DHL’s complementary expertise and strong network, the business is well positioned to further improve its reliable services and the customer experience.” 

Mr de Lange will lead the combined business in the UK, while Stu Hill, CEO of DHL eCommerce UK, will become MD of Evri’s Premium DHL network business. The DHL eCommerce UK executive team will also join the new group. 

Evri will continue to be majority-owned by Apollo-managed funds.