B2C delivery specialist Mondial Relay has announced a co-operation agreement with French counterpart Colis Privé, in which Amazon holds a 25% stake.
It makes provision for customers who are absent when Colis Privé delivers to their home to retrieve parcels from Mondial Relay's network of more than 7,000 pick-up points throughout France.
In a statement, Colis Privé said that the service gives customers up to 10 working days to pick up parcels at locations in close to proximity to their homes.
It added that French consumers can take advantage of Mondial Relay pick-up points situated on average 2.3 km from their homes. These are situated in small supermarkets, newsagents, dry cleaners and florists.
Commenting on the collaboration between the two companies, Colis Privé CEO, Jean-Philippe Bergougnoux, underlined:
“Our partnership with Mondial Relay provides our customers with both quality and convenience. Urban and rural areas are well-served by a pick-up point network which offers extended opening hours, thus meeting customer requirements.”
Mondial Relay has been part of the Hermes group of companies since January 2017. This followed a restructuring of (Hermes') parent company Otto Group’s activities in France.
In June 2016, Mondial Relay announced an exclusive partnership with Poland’s InPost to create a nationwide network of lockers across France as an additional delivery option alongside its 'Point Relais' parcel outlets.
The same year it benefited from an investment programme of more than €15 million “to support the strong growth in its activities and “to enable it to increase its market share in a rapidly expanding sector.”
The spending focused on a mechanisation programme for all of Mondial Relay's 24 distribution centres across France by 2017.
Also in 2016, the company launched a new delivery service “START” destined for professionals shipping up to 5,000 parcels per year.
As for Colis Privé, it claims to be France's leading privately-owned parcel operator. In 2017, it delivered more than 41 million parcels via a network of 2,500 sub-contracted delivery staff. The company also has its own 500-strong workforce.
In 2016, Amazon abandoned plans to take full control of the company following a regulatory review of the proposed deal.
