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A revolutionary approach to cutting emissions
Pedal & Post is a successful ultra-low emission courier and storage business. Over that time, it has grown to a fleet of 25 cycle riders and a turnover of over £500,000 a year. It delivers around 1,000 packages a day, saving an estimated 52 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year by replacing diesel van deliveries.
The team at Ethex prides itself in bringing investors opportunities to invest to support truly extraordinary organisations that are making a real contribution to improving our communities, society and environment. So we’re super excited to help you learn a bit more about Pedal and Post - one of a selection of impactful investment opportunities currently live on the platform.The big home delivery issue
Households in the UK are ordering more online deliveries than ever before. There has been huge growth in online shopping since the pandemic and internet shopping is now more popular in the UK than in any other country. Consumer eCommerce now accounts for 30% of the total retail market in the UK - this may be a bonus for many online retailers, but it presents a number of other problems.
The UK’s large courier companies mainly use diesel vans to deliver the billions of parcels delivered to UK homes each year (an average of 150 parcels per household in 2021) and the emissions from these vans have a negative impact on air quality and climate change, while increasing congestion and road accidents in UK cities.
In fact, it’s estimated that UK households using delivery couriers with diesel vans are costing the NHS and other services a total bill of £12.9 billion a year across England’s towns and cities in costs such as congestion, air pollution, fatal accidents and repairs to roads.
A sustainable solution
Oxford is one of many cities in the UK that is blighted by traffic congestion and the pollution issues this brings, leading the council to impose traffic movement restrictions such as a zero-emission zone and low-traffic neighbourhoods in a bid to curb the growing problem within the city centre.
Back in 2012, Chris Benton was running a small business in Oxford, selling coffee from his bike trailer. He saw the potential for cargo bikes as a delivery service within the city centre and in 2013, he set up Pedal & Post, offering the service to local businesses.
10 years on and Pedal & Post is a successful ultra-low emission courier and storage business. Over that time, it has grown to a fleet of 25 cycle riders and a turnover of over £500,000 a year. It delivers around 1,000 packages a day, saving an estimated 52 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year by replacing diesel van deliveries.
Bike vs van deliveries for cities
While there will always be a need for vans to make longer-distance deliveries, many large courier firms are waking up to the benefits of using cargo bikes to fulfil the ‘last mile’ deliveries within larger towns and cities and Pedal and Post are already working with established delivery companies such as DPD and Yodel to handle their smaller packages. They also handle the deliveries of some nationwide businesses such as vegetable box provider Roverford.
There are multiple benefits to this approach. Deliveries undertaken by Pedal and Post’s cargo bikes have 92% lower greenhouse gas emissions and 100% lower nitrous dioxide emissions than diesel vans. They also lead to 6 times fewer fatal accidents, 15 times less road damage and one-third of the road congestion created by van deliveries.
And there is plenty of scope for growth in the industry. Research from the Department for Transport has found that “33% of all urban deliveries could be done by cargo bikes or e-cargo bikes.” Currently Pedal and Post only handles 2% of deliveries into Oxford.
The prospect of green growth
Chris and the team at Pedal & Post see the opportunities within the cargo bike sector and they are currently raising finance through an equity share offer on Ethex to enable the company to expand into Reading and other UK cities, offering courier companies and local businesses a greener, cleaner and safer alternative for their product deliveries
Their expansion will create around 100 new jobs, helping to boost the local economy and improve lives by offering quality employment with a company that cares. By investing in the equity share offer, investors will help to mitigate around 9 grams of C02 emissions per second by 2028, helping the UK reach our net-zero goals while creating cleaner air and less congested roads.
An offsetting opportunity
Investments in the equity share offer will target a financial return, as the Directors intend to sell the business within the next 5 to 7 years with an estimated rate of return of 16% (IRR) per annum.
However, investing also offers an offsetting opportunity as it’s estimated that an investment of £1,200 in the share offer would enable the sustainable delivery of 150 parcels a year, the average number of parcels received by a UK household. So by investing, people from all over the UK can effectively offset their own parcel delivery’s carbon footprint, while supporting this groundbreaking small business to grow and succeed.
Jamie Hartzell, the Chair of Pedal and Post, comments: “Home deliveries are really valuable in our busy lives, but we can’t always choose how our parcels are delivered. Investing in a zero-emission cargo bike delivery company gives an opportunity to reduce the costs to the taxpayer, cutting congestion and greenhouse gas emissions and cleaning up our air.”
Investments in the Pedal & Post share offer start at £500 and the offer has already raised over £155,000 - moving towards their minimum target of £200,000. If you are interested in investing, please visit the Pedal & Post profile on Ethex.
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