The UK division of one of the world’s biggest mail and parcels solutions providers have unveiled new changes to their management and operational structure which make them even more able to meet the needs of clients at home and abroad. Steve Ferguson, the Managing Director of Spring UK, which is wholly owned by PostNL, has described the process as the latest phase in a transformation of the business which began with his appointment three years ago.
A large proportion of Spring UK’s business comes from online marketplaces and retailers, we’ll be publishing an in-depth article on Monday looking at their services and how they can assist you to grow your business.
Steve Ferguson explained that it followed “significant investments” in developing relationships with ecommerce channel connectors and marketplaces, something which he said was a key element of Spring’s commercial strategy.
“We have made considerable strides over the last couple of years and these changes reflect an increasing focus on those areas of our business, such as channels, which have helped generate growth.
A large proportion of the volumes which we now handle come from online marketplaces and retailers who believe that, as a broker, we offer something different by being able to advise on a broad range of best-fit delivery services in the UK and overseas.
That means that we have not just acquired of a lot of new business but retained existing clients, helping them to expand into new foreign markets.
What we’re doing might not be regarded as truly transformative in terms of our industry. It is more of a subtle refinement of the approach we’ve adopted in recent years but it is one that is already bearing huge dividends.
For instance, channels bring us greater exposure and enable us to tailor what we do so successfully that in-bound customer service calls have fallen noticeably in the space of only a few months.”
– Steve Ferguson, Managing Director, Spring UK
The process has seen Craig Lee become the firm’s new Head of Sales, Marketing and Channel with further reinforcements of both Spring’s Business Development and Customer Service teams. Craig was one of Steve’s first appointments as part of a restructuring of Spring UK’s operations to take account of the respective shifts in mail and parcel traffic.
He was joined by Lane Manager Jason Love and Corporate and Key Account Manager Ed Raynard, both of whom have now assumed greater responsibility within the firm’s Business Development team as a result of the latest changes.
Mr Ferguson stated that Spring, the international cross border solutions arm of PostNL, had also made substantial improvements to its services and network of commercial agreements in a number of countries.
In June, Spring announced the launch of a ‘hybrid’ Commercial Express service designed to help smaller e-commerce firms crack the lucrative US market without having to meet the high tariffs quoted by some carriers.
Steve outlined his belief that they would help clients overcome the potential disruption of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union and allow Spring to prosper from a continent-wide ecommerce sector which will be worth an estimated £316 billion during 2019.
He pointed out how data published earlier this month by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that online sales in the UK during July were almost 13% higher than they had been in the corresponding period the year before.
