MetaPack has announced that after two years of investment in its core systems it has increased revenues by over £5.5m (US$7.3m) year-on-year. This 20% growth is further supported by a distinct upward trajectory in operating performance with EBITDA income shifting MetaPack from a £5.5m (US$7.3m) loss in 2016 to profit for this financial year.
The company has also grown its global business over the past financial year, adding 40 new carriers to its delivery management platform and signing up 27 new top 100 e-commerce brands. It is on course to further expand new carriers by an additional 40-50 over the next 12 months.
MetaPack is now reaping the rewards of large-scale investments in both technology and global expansion. Steve Rowley, executive chairman at MetaPack, said, “We raised £6m (US$7.9m) two years ago and this has further consolidated our core UK operation, supported acquisitions and growth in key international markets, and enabled us to ensure our scalable, reliable delivery platform is robust in the face of peak demands. Because we don’t capitalize in technology, we carried all the costs for the platform investment in the first year, which is why our EBITDA income in 2016 was so low.
“Growth in the team, however, means we have reached over 350 employees and the vast majority of them are developing and maintaining the platform. This intense concentration provides an enterprise level, highly available e-commerce delivery solution that not only assists our customers with their global growth, and gives us a distinct differentiation from our competition, but also provides the framework across which 500 million parcels will be delivered this year.”
The focus for MetaPack in the year ahead is on facilitating improved, more streamlined carrier integration for retailers and brands using the delivery management platform. The company is paying particular attention to onboarding overseas carriers, which will allow UK retailers to maximize international e-commerce opportunities.
In addition, MetaPack expects to introduce a comprehensive online mapping initiative in the next quarter, which will link 500 carriers and services in multiple domestic and international locations to enhance delivery decision making. The company is also investing in a solution that will use retail intelligence data behind the scenes to track deliveries and speed up processes. This will include a suite of user interfaces to access regular reports. It is also about to launch a new returns portal across all markets which is expected to be available from the end of September.
Patrick Wall, founder and director at MetaPack, said, “We have been trialling the returns portal for over a year and it has proven to be highly efficient, so we will be rolling it out to our customers to help them enhance their returns processes imminently. However, this is just one of a number of products that we are developing in response to retailer and carrier requirements so they can serve the increasingly discerning and demanding needs of their customers worldwide.”
September 12, 2017