Chinese e-commerce giants JD.com and Alibaba are said to be vying for the services of British parcel delivery company Evri.
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According to various reports earlier this year, Evri’s majority owner, private equity firm Advent International, has been working with advisers on strategic alternatives for the delivery company, including a potential sale of the business. The company is said to be valued at around 2 billion pounds ($2.56 billion) including debt.
Both Chinese tech titans operate their own individual logistics units to fortify their massive e-commerce operations, with Alibaba managing the Cainiao segment and JD.com running its JD Logistics division.
Others potential bidders include Polish parcel locker firm InPost and private equity firm Apollo Global Management. JD.com is on the second stage of bidding after submitting a non-binding offer last month, according to Reuters.
Evri would not comment on the matter.
On the surface, JD.com seems like a more likely suitor given its recent partnership with Evri that began in January. That partnership was designed to benefit European businesses selling their products via JD.com’s marketplace, facilitating greater access to the Chinese market and its consumers. Through the deal, JD.com will enhance its pickup services for European and U.K.-based brands and businesses. The services will include local pickup, warehousing, international transportation, access to Chinese-bonded warehouses, customs clearance and comprehensive delivery across China.
Ahead of the Evri deal, JD Logistics made a significant push into international delivery, launching an express service in December 2023 that facilitates one-way deliveries from China into 23 countries throughout North America and Europe.
The company has warehousing operations that offer same-day fulfillment services in European markets, including the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Poland, and now says it can offer two-to-three-day delivery across 90 percent of regions in the U.S.
This ties into the current Evri partnership, with JD.com able to integrate its self-operated warehouses with Evri’s local distribution network across Europe. Evri’s partners leverage JD.com to gain more insight into the Chinese market including consumer behavior, marketing and pricing strategies, product selection advice and operational strategies for online retailing. This partnership has initially focused on the beauty and apparel sectors, areas where JD.com says it has “substantial” insights into the shopping preferences of its customers.
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JD.com—not to be confused with the U.K.-based footwear and sportswear retailer JD Sports —has had its eye on businesses in the market recently. In February, the e-commerce giant had considered a deal to acquire electronics and household appliances retailer Currys. But just one month later, JD.com walked away from pursuing a takeover.
Chief competitor Alibaba would have plenty of incentive of its own to bring Evri under the Cainiao umbrella, as it too wants to get more European businesses to sell in the Chinese market. In the 2024 fiscal year, Alibaba says Cainiao’s daily average cross-border and international package volume was more than 5 million.
Cainiao’s “smart logistics network,” as the China-based online marketplace calls it, covers a large swath of logistics capabilities across first-mile pickup, line haul, customs clearance, sortation and last-mile parcel delivery for merchants both in China and abroad. The company touts an on-time delivery rate of 98 percent, with Alibaba saying it can track packages and analyze shipping trends in 224 counties and regions worldwide.
The speculation of a deal comes as Evri is making a few new investments of its own to bolster its delivery network.
Last month, Evri unveiled wider plans to invest 19 million pounds ($24.3 million) to fast-track the rollout out of electric cargo bikes in the U.K.
Within the next year, Evri will grow its fleet of e-cargo bikes from 33 to 99, and increase its number electric vehicles (EVs) from 168 to 270. The company has a goal to grow its fleet of electric cargo bikes to 3,000 over the next decade as part of wider plans to reduce carbon emissions across its network and become a net-zero company by 2035.
Evri is also recently jumped on the artificial intelligence (AI) bandwagon, announcing in June that the company invested 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) in a new AI strategy.
The strategic investment is focused on bolstering customer service, including smarter use of data, enhancing parcel security and optimizing workforce productivity. In the future Evri will also explore and test the use of augmented reality headsets to significantly reduce the time it takes to bring in and train new couriers.
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