Quantium Solutions (Australia), wholly owned by SingPost Group, has announced a US$3.3m deal to acquire a 30% stake of Australian e-commerce company Hubbed. The new partnership aims to make e-commerce delivery to Australian customers more convenient and flexible.
Hubbed is a one-stop e-commerce service aggregator with a network of approximately 680 newsagents. The company provides parcel delivery services in every major city across Australia and also has plans to offer parcel drop-off and the sale of delivery products in the near future.
Dr Sascha Hower, CEO at Quantium Solutions and group chief operating officer of SingPost, said, “With this partnership with Hubbed Australians get another level of flexibility they can collect their parcels through one of the many newsagents in the Hubbed network. Hubbed’s newsagents are a traditional feature of many suburbs and communities. They are super-friendly, close late and are open on weekends. Customers will now have more choice as they can pick up their parcels any time and at their own convenience.
“We are investing to develop an e-commerce ecosystem to provide seamless access to customers in Australia, and growing markets in Asia-Pacific. The ecosystem comprises end-to-end solutions from warehousing to convenient touchpoints, flexible doorstep delivery and track-and-trace features. This partnership with Hubbed, which complements [parcel delivery service provider] CouriersPlease, will help strengthen our e-commerce last mile capability in the regional ecommerce logistics value chain in the region.”
David Mclean, CEO and founder of Hubbed, added, “We firmly believe there is a better way for consumers to experience e-commerce. This partnership is critical to us delivering on that objective. Our network of some 680 newsagents is set to grow rapidly with this investment which will provide our customers with access to even more e-commerce markets worldwide. In Australia, this will result in more parcels moving through the network and an expansion of our customer base.
“Singapore Post, alongside CouriersPlease and The Australian Newsagents Federation, are key parts of our strategy. We have worked closely with Newsagents to build the Hubbed platform which has allowed them to expand beyond parcel services to provide a wide range of other products and services such as bill payments and energy referrals. This will transform the perception of exactly what these great retailers have to offer.”
June 17, 2015