SCOTLAND’S largest independent courier company has cemented its aim to maintain solid growth in its hugely competitive sector by securing a major contract. Eagle Couriers has signed a deal worth around £1.5m with BT to provide services across Scotland until August 2010 - with the option of extending to 2012. The contract win comes as the company, which has bases in Edinburgh and Glasgow, looks to continue its impressive growth framed around its commitment to improve service standards to the business community, particularly for companies frustrated by recent Royal Mail industrial action.Eagle Couriers enjoys an expanding 3500-strong client base, ranging from blue chip household names like the BBC and Scottish Enterprise, to sole traders, all receiving exactly the same standard of fast, professional, expert service. In a sector where rival companies have been reporting losses, it achieved an eight per cent rise in turnover last year and now hopes to see sales surge again over the next 12 months as its pursues new contracts.
Eagle Couriers has worked with BT for eight years but went through an exhaustive procurement process to renew the contract, which sees its courier staff collect and deliver key parts and repair kits to engineers in the field. Director Jerry Stewart said: “We’re delighted to have secured the BT deal as it is a substantial contract and shows the trust built up over a number of years. “It also shows how forward-thinking businesses are increasingly using couriers in non-traditional ways.” Jerry added: “They want highly-skilled engineers doing what they do best – not sitting in a van driving back and forward to depots to collect the parts they need. “Having us collect and deliver those parts is a far better use of everyone’s resources and has proved extremely cost effective and efficient for BT.”
Eagle Couriers, which employs 85 people, has been in business for almost 25 years but in 2006 it was the subject of a management buy-out which saw directors Jerry Stewart, Fiona Deas and Graham Macpherson take over operations. The company’s success is built on excellent customer service and competitive prices, guaranteeing same day/next day deliveries to local, national and international destinations. It was the first courier company in Scotland to achieve ISO status.
As business-to-business experts, Eagle Couriers specialises in helping other firms operate more efficiently and profitably, by safely delivering on time everything from documents, medical samples, and precision engineered parts to sports footage, scripts – and even a live parrot. The company also benefits clients by investing heavily in new technology like web booking and electronic tracking in its 65-strong vehicle fleet. As a result, businesses such as printers and legal firms which traditionally relied on courier services are now being joined by firms which typically did not use couriers in the past. Jerry added: “With guaranteed service levels and highly competitive charges, more and more businesses see the merit in using professional couriers to ensure their important material – no matter what it is – arrives at the right place at the right time. That is a major attraction to companies, especially those who have become increasingly frustrated by industrial action disputes at the Royal Mail. “We are currently involved in a number of tenders for major contracts which if successful would see staffing levels increase by at least 10 per cent. Our aim is to see growth of more than five per cent in the next 12 months. That’s a realistic but still impressive target when you consider how tough our market is.”
