The Delivery Group

Next Wave created The Delivery Group (“TDG”) to provide UK-based e-commerce clients with an integrated premium international and domestic service offering, combined with time-critical specialist mail services.

The group brought together market-leading international e-commerce logistics operator, P2P Mailing Limited, and specialist domestic mail/e-commerce operators, Secured Mail and CMS Network.  Next Wave first invested into Secured Mail in 2011 when it had already delivered exceptional growth in the newly liberalised postal sector, and shortly after was ranked second in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100.  CMS also grew rapidly through offering its niche, value-added, specialist managed mail services to major financial institutions, blue chip clients and SME e-commerce operators.  Next Wave added P2P, the partner of choice for leading UK e-commerce retailers, to the group in October 2016.

During its investment, Next Wave invested in several software and technology development initiatives to enable and accelerate internationalisation, supported major depot consolidation and financed operational automation. Its investment also enabled a substantial reduction in operational costs, while improving TDG’s ability to scale operations to deal with increasing domestic and international demand. Next Wave supported TDG’s strategic transition towards higher margin and higher growth service lines such as global e-commerce delivery.

Under Next Wave’s ownership, revenue grew from £32m to over £250m, and EBITDA from less than £1m to £12m. Enterprise value grew from under £10m to over £100m at exit, achieving over 4x our Fund’s investment. Next Wave retain an ongoing shareholding.