Business Post to float
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by Juliet Parish • Business Post, one of the UK's leading independent parcel and express mail delivery firms, is planning a stock market flotation in early July to fund the acquisition of three regional hubs. Business Post expects the flotation to capitalise the 22-year-old business by more than £50m.
About £12m will be spent this year on replacing leasehold property with owned sites at Leeds, Manchester and Bristol. The regional hubs, which will be part of a network of 14, will help Business Post handle an expected 40% growth in traffic in the next 12 months.
To meet this forecast it is planning to increase the number of franchised outlets from 49 to 55 by the end of the year.
Postal areas in which it would be interested in recruiting include St Albans, Bath, Derby, Teesside, Doncaster, Lincoln, Oldham and Walsall.
Operators can expect to pay a one-off fee of £30,000-85,000 to join the network which runs about 700 vehicles, including about 30 tractive units.
Business Post was formed in 1971 by chairman Peter Kane, who was joined three years later by his brother Michael. Once the flotation has been completed the family will own 75% of the shares, with the rest going to the public.
Business Post is currently han dling about 400,000 consignments a month in the UK and some 5,000 a month overseas—over 65% of its turnover comes from time guaran teed 24-hour deliveries. In the three years ended 31 March 1993 its revenue has increased at a compound rate of 40% to approximately E33m.