In sad news, Tuffnells went into administration today with the immediate loss of 2,200 jobs.
Headquartered in Sheffield and with 33 depots across the UK, Tuffnells was a leading distributor of mixed freight, and were a specialist in handling items of irregular dimension and weight, delivering within the UK and internationally. They boasted some 4,000 businesses as their customers.
The administrators cite various pressures which have impacted trading, including the impact of COVID-19, high cost inflation and an increasingly competitive market.
This is bad news for ecommerce retailers that used Tuffnells, and there would be a solid business reason for selecting them as your courier. It is likely because you’re shipping awkward shaped or oversized goods which few other carriers want to handle.
Most retailers will have contingency plans, but if you’re stuck then likely carriers that will be able to assist with the type of traffic Tuffnells handled are DX, FedEx and Parcelforce. Unfortunately it’s probably not only going to cost more for your shipping requirements moving forward, but you also may have customers with goods in transit that will take time to recover and reship.
Business customers of Tuffnells should log into their customer portal on the Company’s website in order to receive further information on how to retrieve any parcels currently in transit. If you are a customer expecting a delivery, then you are advised to contact the seller for details of refunds or replacement articles.
Tuffnells is one of the UK’s most recognisable logistics companies, providing delivery services to over 4,000 businesses across the UK under its ‘The Big Green Parcel Machine’ brand.
Unfortunately, the highly competitive nature of the UK parcel delivery market, coupled with significant inflation across the Company’s fixed cost base in recent times, has resulted in the Company experiencing intense pressure on cashflow.
Today’s news will be particularly devastating for Tuffnells’ 2,200 dedicated employees. Regrettably, with deliveries suspended and with no prospect of them resuming in the immediate term, we have had to make the majority of staff redundant. Our utmost priority will be to provide all those impacted with every support they need in making claims to the Redundancy Payments Office and minimising disruption to customers.
Customers are advised that all transport hubs and depots have been closed until further notice. Our team will be making contact with customers over the coming days to arrange parcel collection.
– Rick Harrison, managing director at Interpath Advisory and joint administrator
3 Responses
It’s a shame this, they were very good at handling things other couriers simply didn’t want to take.
We said in unison here yesterday when the news broke ‘they were too cheap’, not trying to twist the knife but they could have got away with a 50% price increase on their larger services and I think most businesses would have happily paid it
Our experience with Tuffnells has always been to opposite. Lost and damaged parcels. Parcels frequently left at wrong addresses.
They were not too cheap. They were rather over-priced, in our view, given our experiences.
DX not taking on any new business at the moment leaves us stuck for items between 3 and 6 metres in length