Organic Growth Masterclass: InPost, backed by Advent International

InPost, formerly known as Integer, is the first company in Poland to build a network of Automated Parcel Machines (APMs) - self-service parcel dispatch and collection points that are open 24/7. Advent originally invested in InPost through two public-to- private investments in April 2017. At the time, InPost had a compelling customer proposition but required a significant cash injection to support the roll out of its APM network.

INCREASED ACCESSIBILITY

Nick Rose, managing director of Advent International, says: “We wanted to expand the network as quickly as possible to make it convenient to as many people as possible. 62 per cent of shoppers said the reason they didn’t use lockers was because there wasn’t one near enough to them. So we needed to expand, locally and internationally.

International expansion has been another key driver of the business. In July of 2021, InPost closed the acquisition of Mondial Relay for a little more than €500m and in doing so, added a leading out of home operator in France to the group.

The company has also grown the UK operation organically where parcel volume increased from 6k to c.100k in 2020, following the launch of key new clients including Boohoo, Missguided, Hut Group, Arcadia and Superdry.”

NEW MANAGEMENT

Nick says: “We backed a dynamic founder who had built a talented and entrepreneurial team. We added to the management team with a new chairman, as well as CFO, COO, CMO, HRD and CIO hires.

For its international business, Michael Rouse, formerly Klarna, was hired as an international CEO in 2020.

There was also the launch of a new team of data scientists and opening of a CDO role, with several initiatives already being put in place including churn prediction models, precision marketing, dynamic courier routing, etc.”

MARKETING CAMPAIGN

Nick says: “We made significant improvements in three key areas: operational upgrades, customer services and commercial initiatives.

During our ownership period, the gross margin per parcel increased by over 75 per cent, and that was driven by the introduction of a broad range of technological solutions to introduce more efficient sorting, and higher courier productivity rates. IT systems were also upgraded and being re-platformed to support rapid growth and increased analytical requirements. In terms of customer services, there was the launch of the app, which now has over 5.7m active users and is ranked five stars on app stores across its relevant platforms. The app supports end-to-end contactless APM consumer experience.

Revenues also increased by five times, driven by the success of a range of commercial initiatives including network expansion, pricing, and with InPost expanding its services into new adjacencies and innovations - which included the launch of fulfilment services, which reduced delivery costs by c.40 per cent, and e-grocery as a new service line.”