Troubled UK airfreight collection and delivery specialist Circle Express has found a new home in Rico, part of the TVS logistics group.
Rico has taken a majority shareholding in Slough-based Circle, which entered into a company voluntary arrangement in 2012 and appointed turnaround specialists KSA Group to allow it to continue trading while it repaid its debts.
Rico parent TVS Logistics has $10bn annual revenues and employs more than 30,000 people worldwide. Its UK subsidiary operates over 40 branches controlling over 1,400 courier vehicles a day and also provides warehousing and technical field engineering services.
Circle Express’ day to day operations and management will not change although upper management will have a new reporting structure. It currently has an annual turnover of over £29m with a fleet of 300 vehicles operating out of depots near the airports of Heathrow, Aberdeen, Birmingham, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and a cross dock facility in Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
Circle Express, which specialises in the freight forwarding sector, says it is the only UK operator fully licensed to transport all classes of hazardous materials including firearms and ammunition and radioactive, toxic, flammable, corrosive and explosive material. It also provides dangerous goods training.
Circle Express managing director, Tom Ryan, said: “This great opportunity will give Circle the financial backing and work collaboration opportunities to move forward and strengthen its position in our industry.
"Rico already have 1400 Sameday Couriers operating in the UK. With our ADR (dangerous goods) training facilities we can quickly up-skill these drivers to ADR capability which is mandatory for our operations. We can then provide a much stronger same day service to our customer base.”
Rico Global chief executive Sam Sharma described the acquisition as “a fantastic opportunity to expand our same day capability, generating higher premium services across the UK. This acquisition will bring us some more depots to add to our existing 48 same day depots across the country and builds our larger vehicle and trunking capacity within our operations.”
