Route to Insight #02: Updates within Delivery

Insight, investment, mergers, market realignments, and the tech shaping tomorrow’s logistics

Author

Jordon Cornish
June 19, 2025

Global Parcel Logistics: Major Updates and Market Shifts

Back-to-back headline months: the Evri/DHL merger kept the spotlight, while investment surged across every corner of the sector.

Evri + DHL eCommerce merger bottleneck
In mid-May, Evri (ex-Hermes) struck a game-changing deal to merge with DHL’s UK e-comm arm—creating a parcel “superpower” handling over 1 billion parcels and 1 billion business letters annually. DHL takes a minority stake and launches Evri Premium for higher-tier parcels and letters
But June 11 brought a dose of reality: the CMA opened a formal review, inviting comments through June 25 to assess competition risks Evri to enter the UK letter delivery market and a first for the parcel-focused giant.

Also in June, Evri shifted from paper to emailed receipts boosting efficiency and sustainability. Alongside announcing plans to bolster headcount by hiring 5000 new couriers.

In the last month we’re also seeing the Logistics real estate is heating up: Grade-A demand, especially for big-box units (400k+ sq ft), hit 49% in Q1. DHL plunked down £230M for a mega-hub in Coventry (1M parcels/day, solar-powered, EU‑customs ready), while FedEx consolidates five depots into two smarter sites by 2029 and DPD stumps up £330m for new automated distributions centres.

Globally, we’ve got a acceleration of M&A activity.

India's Big Deal — CCI signed off on Delhivery’s ₹1,407 cr swoop for Ecom Express. Why it matters: boosted network density (+3.7k facilities!), margin gains via overhead elimination, and stronger foothold in tier‑2 & tier‑3 markets. Investors cheered—shares +1.6%.

Evri Europe Push — May saw Evri land Coll‑8, slicing UK‑Ireland delivery times to two days and adding 500 PUDO spots. Strategy: plug EU customs gaps, cement cross-border clout post-DHL deal.

Continental Hunger — Europe’s logistics M&A is full steam: Textainer + Seaco, K+N + TDN, One Frio + McCulla. Scale, tech and sustainability are non-negotiable.

Market Data & Metrics

Global parcel volumes: Projected to reach 131 billion shipments worldwide by 2025, with same-day delivery growing 30% and drone deliveries up 19%

Europe's CEP growth: +4.7% volume increase in 2023 (nearly 19.5 B parcels), with revenue climbing +5.6% to €91.6 B

UK Locker use on the rise: More than 52.8% of UK consumers have used parcel lockers at least once, rising to 71% among Gen Z and 68% among Millennials

Startups & Investments

  1. Portless (US): $18M Series A to enable direct-from-China shipping for Western brands, pivoting quickly after the U.S. ended de minimis exemptions.

  2. Slikk (India): Bengaluru’s instant-fashion delivery platform raise a $10M funding round expansion and efficiency upgrades in ultra-fast fashion logistics.

  3. Augment (US): Raised $25 million to develop “Augie,” an AI assistant for logistics operations, handling emails, workflows, and driver coordination

The Drop-Off: This Month in Logistics

That’s it for this edition of Route to Insight. The ground beneath the delivery world is shifting - from billion-pound mergers in the UK to AI pilots in parcel depots and cross-border complexities that go far beyond customs declarations.

In the meantime, enjoy our Fika Games (Swedish tradition to pause in the day, enjoy a hot drink and a sweet treat and a our twist a Fika games by Synkka), created to help you relax during the busy conference and travel season.

Until then, Enjoy
Team Synkka

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