British delivery giant that employs 2,300 people on verge of administration

Thousands of businesses risk major disruption to deliveries as one of Britain’s biggest logistics companies prepared to appoint administrators.

Tuffnells is understood to have told its 2,300-strong workforce to go home on Friday afternoon as it prepares for administration.

All drivers were called back to their depots on Friday and a national meeting of staff has been scheduled for Monday at 12pm, with the expectation that an administration will be formally announced.

The company has more than 4,000 business customers and lays claim to being experts in handling large, heavy and bulky items. Customers include Evans Cycles, online tyre retailer Black Circles and farming tool supplier Spaldings. The company operates across 167 countries.

Tuffnells was until recently owned by Connect Group, which was originally WHSmith News, but the business was sold to turnaround investment specialist Broad Oak Support Services in 2020 in a deal worth £15m.

Although it changed hands for a comparatively modest sum, it is a major delivery company with £178m of annual revenue. The business generated £5.5m of pre-tax profit in the year to December 2021.

Court filings on Friday afternoon revealed law firm TLT LLP had filed a notice of an intention to appoint administrators on behalf of Tuffnells Parcels Express Limited.

The prospective administration comes only 48 hours after Aim-quoted delivery company DX came to a settlement with Tuffnells in a legal row over confidential competitor information.

Tuffnells claimed that staff that had taken jobs with DX had shared confidential competitor information with its rival.

Announcing the settlement, DX said it did not admit liability. DX refused to share details of the settlement, saying only they would not have any impact on 2022-23 financial figures.

WHSmith News was rebranded Smiths News in 2014 and paid more than £100m to acquire Tuffnells later the same year. Smiths News rebranded as Connect Group in 2020.

Tuffnells was founded in 1914 by Harold Tuffnell who spent £100 on a horse and cart and began delivering goods.