Logistics and courier services provider Rico has acquired a majority shareholding in UK freight distribution carrier Circle Express.
Rico has announced that Circle Express’ day-to-day operations and management team will remain the same although upper management will adopt a new reporting structure.
Circle Express has an annual turnover in excess of £29m (US$41m) with a countrywide fleet of 300 vehicles operating out of eight Aviation Security-listed depots near the airports of London Heathrow, Aberdeen, Birmingham, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester, and a cross dock facility in Milton Park, Abingdon.
Circle Express is the only UK operator fully licensed to transport all classes of hazardous materials including firearms and ammunition as well as radioactive, toxic, flammable, corrosive and explosive materials.
Tom Ryan, managing director, Circle Express, said, “This great opportunity will give Circle the financial backing and work collaboration opportunities to move forward and strengthen its position in our industry.
“Rico already has 1,400 same-day couriers operating in the UK who are all DBS checked and some also PES checked. So, with our ADR training facilities, we can quickly up-skill these drivers to ADR capability, which is mandatory for our operations; we can then provider a much stronger same-day service to our customer base.”
Sam Sharma, global CEO for Rico, said, “We are proud to bring Circle Express into the Rico business, as it’s a fantastic opportunity to expand our same-day capability, generating higher premium services across the UK. This acquisition will bring us some more depots to add to our existing 48 same-day depots across the country and builds our larger vehicle and trunking capacity within our operations.”
January 27, 2016