Interpath chosen for Tuffnells Parcel Express administration

A major UK courier service has appointed administrators, citing the cost of inflation and increasing competition as factors contributing to its downfall. Professionals from Interpath Advisory will now weigh up options for the future of Tuffnells Parcels Express’ remaining assets.

Growing from humble beginnings in 1914, Sheffield-headquartered Tuffnells Parcels Express has since become one of the UK’s largest distributors of mixed freight packages. The company was founded more than a century ago by Harold James Tuffnell, who first operated a delivery service with a horse and a cart he bought for £100.

In the following decades, Tuffnells evolved to specialise in handling items of irregular dimension and weight, sorting and delivering via 33 depots across the UK, as well as handling the logistics for more than 160 destinations worldwide.

Until recently, Tuffnells offered delivery services to over 4,000 businesses across the UK – including Evans Cycles and Spaldings – under its ‘The Big Green Parcel Machine’ brand. The company seems to have first fallen on hard times since the pandemic, however. At a time when many other package delivery firms were enjoying a boom in demand, thanks to the lockdown, the unique market position of Tuffnells made it vulnerable to the supply chain disruption that the lockdown on international travel caused in 2020.

The firm had only recently returned to private ownership, when Palm Bidco had acquired it. And while the following years saw borders open up again, Tuffnells soon encountered more headwinds – in the shape of huge rates of inflation, and an increasingly competitive market.

The situation led Tuffnells to seek out financial support in recent weeks. This proved easier said than done, though, and after a number of options were explored, the directors finally took the decision to seek the appointment of administrators.

The news saw all deliveries suspended, and as there is “no prospect of them resuming in the immediate term”, the administrators from Interpath Advisory made the majority of the firm’s 2,200 employees redundant. Rick Harrison and Howard Smith will now work with the 128 remaining staff to explore the remaining options for Tuffnells.

Harrison, a managing director at Interpath Advisory, commented, “Tuffnells is one of the UK’s most recognisable logistics companies. Unfortunately, the highly competitive nature of the UK parcel delivery market, coupled with significant inflation across the Company’s fixed cost base in recent times, has resulted in the company experiencing intense pressure on cashflow. Our utmost priority will be to provide all those impacted with every support they need in making claims to the Redundancy Payments Office and minimising disruption to customers.”

B2B customers of Tuffnells should log into their customer portal on the company’s website, where they can sign up to receive further information on how to retrieve their parcels. Meanwhile, customers expecting parcels from Tuffnells which have not been delivered will need to contact the original seller for a resoultion, as the firm is unable to deliver any parcels.

Smith added, "Our team will be making contact with customers over the coming days to arrange parcel collection."