Ireland’s largest independent delivery firm Nightline has claimed a 25% increase in parcel volumes since Britain voted to leave the European Union earlier this year. It means the company was seeing hitting expected volumes a month earlier than usual.
The company’s CEO and co-founder John Tuohy said that the volume increase was in its Parcel Motel division and comes as more Irish consumers are choosing to shop with UK brands thanks to a shift in currency rates as a result of the Brexit decision.
“It’s impossible to overestimate the impact which the ‘Brexit’ is having on demand for UK goods among Irish shoppers as a whole and, in particular, those using Parcel Motel,” said Tuohy.
“The Euro has strengthened considerably against Sterling since June and that has made a significant difference in terms of the affordability of goods. “At the end of October, we were hitting volumes through Parcel Motel which we would normally only expect to see at the end of November – almost the high point of the entire pre-Christmas period – and parcel traffic shows every sign of continuing to increase,” he said.
The company runs the Parcel Motel service, a nationwide network of more than 13 thousand parcel lockers which allows consumers to route purchases made from British retailers through Nightline’s Belfast depot to local terminals, thereby avoiding the often high costs associated with shipping direct to the Republic by capitalising on free UK delivery.
In September, Nightline increased its staff numbers and depot network as part of the latest stage in the company’s growth. The company was founded in 1992 by Tuohy and Nightline Group COO, Dave Field, and now boasts more than 1,000 employees and 13 sites across both the Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Image credit: Nightline Group
