1,500 new jobs to be created by UK’s fastest growing parcel company DPD

.£175m expansion includes new parcel hub and ten new regional depots

.£100m purpose-built parcel sorting hub planned for the East Midlands

.£20m refurbishment of two existing hubs

.£12m to build 10 new depots over the next 15 months

.Investment follows £70m of e-tail customer new business wins resulting from DPD’s one hour delivery slot service, Predict

Leading parcel firm DPD is to invest £175m to expand its capacity to meet growing demand from the online retail boom. The investment will create 1,500 new, full-time jobs.

DPD plans to build a new, purpose-built £100m parcel sorting hub – one of largest of its kind in Europe – in the East Midlands in addition to refurbishing two of its other hubs to increase the number of parcels it can handle each night. The investment follows a period of unprecedented growth spearheaded by the company’s Predict service which was launched in March 2010 and has generated over £70m of new business to date and over 1,000 new full-time jobs in the past 12 months, as a flood of major retailers switched to DPD.

The service utilises the latest GPS tracking technology to provide customers with a one-hour delivery window so they do not have to wait in all day for their parcel. More than 97 per cent of the millions of parcels delivered each year with Predict are delivered ‘right first time’, meaning fewer wasted trips for drivers redelivering parcels or customers having to go to the depot to pick up a missed delivery.

The company is also today announcing a major investment in its nationwide network of depots with £20m assigned to upgrade a number of its existing 40 locations and build ten new depots over the next 15 months. Other investments include the replacement of all the handheld devices used by drivers for route optimisation and parcel administration and ongoing investment in security and IT upgrades.

Dwain McDonald, DPD CEO, said: "I’m delighted to announce this very significant investment in new jobs and infrastructure. DPD has been expanding year on year and is now the fastest growing major carrier in the UK. This investment will allow us to expand our network capacity further to meet the demands from our customers and maintain our very high service standards.

"The online retail market is expanding rapidly with consumers now prepared to buy a much wider range of goods online. With Predict we have a product which gives retailers greater confidence that their goods can be delivered both on time and straight into the hands of their customers. That helps them improve their customer service and helps encourage more repeat purchases."