Structural shift to online drives further growth

The firm saw significant organic growth in the period, particularly driven by high e-fulfilment volumes, with volume growth and extension of services on existing contracts, notably with ASOS, Farfetch, John Lewis, Westwing and Wilko.

Within non e-fulfilment, further organic volume growth came with existing customers, such as Asda and Morrisons. The Group expanded its estate to 16 million sq ft of space now under management in over 50 locations in five territories across Europe, while it welcomed an additional 2,000 new colleagues. Its new northern flagship site (Sherburn) is now at full capacity (1.4 million sq ft).

The company said: “Our flexible, technology-led end-to-end proposition within the e-commerce market resulted in multiple new contract wins including Linenbundle, Revolution Beauty and Unipart. The structural shift to online during the pandemic with continuing momentum in e-fulfilment post pandemic together with strategically aligned acquisitions will help drive further shareholder value in future years.”

Executive chairman Steve Parkin added: “The market has witnessed significant recent change particularly with the acceleration of the growth in e-fulfilment which now represents 70% of our logistics revenue. Our unique proposition, which offers the full end to end range of services within the e-commerce field, has allowed the Group to benefit from this strong dynamic.”

Investment research and consultancy Edison Group commented on the results. Director of equity sales Richard Sloss said: “The group’s balance sheet remains robust with net debt/EBITDA of 0.4x leaving scope for Clipper to make structurally aligned acquisitions. The company has invested in 8 new warehouse facilities with total area of 4.2million square foot, alongside securing 6 new long-term contracts. Recent news of agreements to provide services to both John Lewis and Life Style Sports are a promising indication that the company will maintain its strong performance in the coming year.”