IN Brief:
- Group parcel volumes increased 17% and passed one billion items during the financial year.
- Revenue rose 29% to £2.38bn, while adjusted EBITDA increased 18% to £402m.
- Barnsley automation will raise peak processing capacity to 1.5 million parcels per day.
Evri Group handled more than one billion parcels during the financial year to 28 February 2026, reaching its volume target three years earlier than planned as automation and network investment accelerated.
Annual parcel volumes increased by 17%, while revenue rose 29% to £2.38bn and adjusted EBITDA grew 18% to £402m. The enlarged group, formed following the completion of Evri’s combination with DHL eCommerce UK in October 2025, is now targeting annual capacity of approximately 1.4 billion parcels by 2030.
Capital investment reached £80m during the year, compared with £57m previously. Spending covered sortation, depot capacity, delivery technology, fulfilment, and the expansion of out-of-home collection and returns infrastructure.
Around £30m is being directed towards additional automation at Evri’s Barnsley super hub. The programme includes a £25m third tier of sortation equipment and a further £4m small-item sorter, raising planned peak capacity to as many as 1.5 million parcels per day before Christmas 2026.
Peak processing performance is disproportionately important to parcel-network economics. A short promotional and Christmas period can determine service levels and customer retention for the year, yet equipment installed for the peak must remain commercially useful when daily volumes fall back.
Dedicated small-item sortation reflects the changing composition of e-commerce consignments. Apparel, accessories, beauty products, electronics, and compact household goods can consume disproportionate capacity when they pass through equipment designed for a broader parcel mix, particularly if irregular packaging creates jams or requires manual handling.
Separating those items onto purpose-built equipment should free capacity on the principal sorters while improving routing accuracy. The gain will depend on how effectively parcels are identified upstream and diverted before they enter the wrong process.
Evri is also investing £50m to expand its ParcelShop and locker estate to 25,000 UK locations by 2030. Out-of-home delivery allows several consignments to be consolidated at one stop, reducing repeated doorstep attempts and creating a common location for collections and returns.
Density determines whether that model produces the intended savings. A well-used locker near workplaces, shops, or transport routes can reduce vehicle mileage and failed delivery; an inconvenient or frequently full unit transfers the problem to customer service and redelivery operations.
The group’s technology programme includes an updated courier application and Veri-snap, which uses artificial intelligence to assess delivery photographs. Clear proof of delivery has become a significant cost-control function as volumes rise, because an unusable image leaves the location and security of a parcel open to dispute.
Competition is widening beyond the established carrier market as Amazon Shipping offers external businesses parcel capacity with a simplified surcharge structure. Carriers must now compete across price, collection reliability, delivery choice, tracking, claims handling, and the ability to absorb seasonal peaks.
Scale helps spread the fixed cost of hubs, depots, technology, vehicles, and linehaul across more consignments, although it does not guarantee margin. Stop density, parcel size, failed delivery, returns, automation utilisation, and labour productivity determine whether additional volume improves the network or merely makes it busier.
Integrating DHL eCommerce UK adds reach and volume but also creates decisions around depot roles, linehaul schedules, customer contracts, systems, and duplicated facilities. Savings emerge only after operational processes and data are aligned; until then, a larger organisation can carry more interfaces and exceptions than either predecessor.
Retailers are simultaneously spreading consignments across several carriers through allocation software that selects a service by destination, parcel type, price, and promised delivery date. Contracts increasingly provide access to volume rather than an exclusive claim over it, forcing carriers to compete for individual parcels at the point of dispatch.
Faster sortation at Barnsley must be matched by linehaul departures, receiving depots, couriers, lockers, and ParcelShops. When downstream capacity does not keep pace, additional sorter throughput simply moves the queue to trailers, yards, or local delivery stations.
The Christmas peak will provide the first severe test of the expanded operation. Processing 1.5 million parcels in a day requires equipment availability, labour, trailer scheduling, delivery capacity, and exception handling to remain synchronised across the network.
One billion parcels establishes Evri’s scale in the UK market; the next phase requires that scale to produce consistent service and stronger unit economics. Automation can increase speed and capacity, but delivery performance will still be decided across thousands of daily handovers beyond the main sorter.
