Parcelforce will take work home
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• Parcelforce Worldwide is trailing a home delivery service during evenings and weekends.
The pilot is taking place in Colchester, St Albans and Newcastle upon Tyne. It will be extended next month to Cleveland, South Tyneside and East London. Home shopping, which is Internet-driven, accounts for 4.6% of retail sales and is worth some £9bn.
Clive Vaughan, head of consulting at analyst Retail Intelligence, says this sector has enjoyed phenomenal growth but is still only a small proportion of the market. "It is far too early to tell what will happen," he adds. "Food retailers are new into this area and if large retailers such as M&S or Next among others move Into home shopping it could grow signifi cantly. But courier services such as White Arrow will be competing heav
ily against Parcelforce."