Körber Supply Chain Software, a joint venture between Körber AG and KKR, and a global provider of adaptable supply chain execution solutions, has joined Zero100, a membership-based intelligence company connecting, informing, and inspiring the world’s supply chain leaders to accelerate progress on digital supply chain transformation.
As Körber Supply Chain Software transitions to its new brand – Infios – this collaboration will accelerate Infios’s artificial intelligence (AI) and sustainability initiatives, driving forward its commitment to providing adaptable supply chain execution solutions that evolve with customer needs, and helping businesses reduce their environmental impact while enhancing operational efficiency.
As a member of the community, Infios will leverage Zero100’s expertise to integrate innovative sustainability practices and digital tools into its adaptable solutions. By harnessing advanced technologies such as AI and data analytics and providing businesses with the right level of flexibility and control to evolve and adapt solutions to their needs, Infios can help its customers optimize their entire supply chain ecosystem and create a more optimistic outlook.
“We are excited to partner with Zero100 to execute on our vision and our commitment to relentlessly make supply chains better,” said Ed Auriemma, Chief Executive Officer at Infios. “By growing with our customers, delivering adaptable solutions, thinking ahead, and purposefully innovating, we are equipping businesses with the tools to optimize operations, enhance resilience, and drive measurable sustainability impact. Together, we are shaping the future of smarter, more efficient, and more responsible supply chains.”
Infios’s comprehensive suite of solutions, including order management, warehousing and fulfillment, and transportation management, will be enhanced through access to Zero100’s data-driven research insights and advisory.
Deal volumes in the UK logistics and supply chain management sector hit a record high in 2024 in a strong year of dealmaking, with 93 deals completed in the logistics sector. This is a 15% increase on deals completed in 2023.
Transaction volumes in Q4 2024 fell to 19 deals, compared to a quarterly five-year high of 27 seen in the previous quarter. However, there remains a strong appetite for deals, particularly from international investors. Total disclosed deal value for Q4 2024 was also considerably lower than the previous quarter. This is largely attributable to a high value in Q3 driven by the acquisition of Evri by Apollo Global Management Inc for £2.7bn.
According to the latest report from accountancy and business advisory firm BDO LLP, the ‘UK M&A Update – Q4 2024, Logistics and Supply Chain Management’, in the final quarter of the year, the majority of transactions in Q4 were trade deals and 58% were cross-border – an increase from 44% in Q3.
Notable transactions were Green Fulfilment’s acquisition of Omni Channel Fulfilment; InPost SA’s acquisition of the remaining 70% shareholding in Menzies Distribution group; and Schenk’s acquisition of Suttons Tankers. Private equity appetite in the sector continued and there were several direct investments, whilst several of the trade acquisitions were by PE-backed businesses.
The report also showed that technology remains a key driver in the sector, with 42% of deals tech-related.
Jason Whitworth, M&A partner at BDO LLP (pictured), explained: “The drop in deal activity in Q4 undoubtedly reflects a forward pull on deals to complete ahead of the Autumn Budget. The market was also digesting the budget announcements, notably the impact of the increased costs that will be incurred by businesses in the form of higher National Insurance Contributions and minimum wages. That being said, there remains a strong appetite for deals, particularly from international investors accessing and consolidating in the UK.”
Jason Whitworth, BDO
Prominent cross-border Q4 deals included Aptean Inc acquiring Indigo Software Ltd; while Deutsche Post and Fracht AG also acquired in the UK, snapping up Brandpath Group and Quality Freight Ltd respectively.
Whitworth said: “As we get into the full swing of 2025, the improving confidence highlighted in our UK Logistics Confidence survey in October 2024 appears to have been dented. Increased costs and the less benign economic outlook have increased the pressure on the industry. Alongside other significant operational changes, 2025 looks like it will be particularly challenging.”
Following the inauguration of President Donald Trump, UK businesses are being urged to prepare for potential supply chain disruptions and rising trade costs, as uncertainty looms over future US trade policies. A recent BDO survey of 500 mid-market businesses revealed that supply chain disruptions are amongst the top challenges UK businesses face and it is expected that mitigating supply chain risks will become a key priority in the coming 12 months.
Whitworth added: “With this continued uncertainty and challenge comes opportunity for those building on effective and quality service, and we anticipate that capital rich investors and trade will continue to drive increased investment activity as the focus shifts to increased technology enablement and consolidation of supply chain services to drive efficiencies.”
FedEx Corp. has announced that it has acquired RouteSmart Technologies, a provider of route optimization solutions with over 40 years of expertise, providing mission-critical technology to newspaper, postal & parcel, public works, utilities & field service, and waste collection organizations worldwide.
The combination of RouteSmart’s leading technology solutions with FedEx’s physical and data networks will enable one of the world’s largest express transportation providers to further drive efficiency across its own global operations, while also strengthening the company’s suite of technology solutions.
“This is yet another step on our journey to make supply chains smarter for everyone as we revolutionize logistics,” said Raj Subramaniam, President and Chief Executive Officer, FedEx Corporation. “Our physical network generates terabytes of data that contain invaluable insights about the global supply chain. Through this acquisition, we will use RouteSmart’s expertise and proven technology platform to accelerate the deployment of a common route optimization capability for FedEx operations that will enable our team members to work safer and smarter as they deliver superior service to our customers.”
The two companies expect a seamless integration as they build upon many years of collaboration. FedEx has been a long-standing customer of RouteSmart, using its Routing as a Service (RaaS) product in its ground operations for many years. RaaS serves as the backbone for the internal FedEx Route Optimization (FRO) tool, which the company is rolling out globally as part of its ongoing network transformation.
“We are excited to tighten our strategic relationship with FedEx as we further drive efficiency throughout FedEx’s global operations and accelerate our solutions for all clients we serve,” said Larry Levy, president, RouteSmart Technologies.
RouteSmart will continue to work with customers across a broad range of industries. Headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, RouteSmart will operate as a standalone entity under FedEx Dataworks, which is a direct subsidiary of Federal Express Corporation.
The outlook for 2025 is challenging for any business involved in the retail fulfilment process – from online retailers to logistics providers. The changes to UK National Insurance and the National Living Wage made in the November 2024 budget has had serious financial ramifications for companies already operating on wafer-thin margins. Furthermore, consumer demand has also stalled, with the UK braced for weak consumer spending throughout the next 12 months as public confidence falls.
So how will the industry react? Where can retailers look to improve fortunes throughout 2025? Is it possible to cut costs without compromising the high level of experience customers now demand? Andrew Tavener, Head of Marketing, Descartes explores.
Impossible Squeeze
Britain’s largest retailers are warning of potentially thousands of job cuts this year as the industry braces for higher taxes and employment costs. A bleak Christmas shopping season failed to alleviate concerns about the outlook for 2025, with the British Retail Consortium (BRC) confirming sales growth over the “golden quarter” between October and December came close to flatlining. Consumer confidence is low. The UK’s economic growth projections have been downgraded. Retailers, therefore, have tough decisions to make. Not all will have the confidence and sheer size of brands such as Next which has said it will increase prices by 1% this year to help offset a £67m rise in wage costs driven by budget tax changes.
At the same time, of course, customers’ expectations continue to rise. If consumers are to be enticed into spending, they want to enjoy every aspect of the transaction – both online and in person. There is no tolerance for delivery mistakes. As the Home Delivery Consumer Sentiment Study 2024 confirms, problems such as expensive electrical items left on the doorstep in the rain or delivery confirmation photographs of someone else’s doorstep are a fast track to customer loss.
Andrew Tavener, Descartes
How will companies respond to this squeeze? Where are the opportunities to impose tighter cost control while also providing an exceptional customer experience and, of course, attaining legislative sustainability goals while accommodating customers’ environmental expectations for green delivery?
Optimise and Communicate
For an industry already operating on tight margins, these new financial pressures are potentially devastating. However, there are clear opportunities to improve performance whilst also improving the customer experience. The simplest, quickest and least expensive step is to ensure customers are kept informed at every stage of the fulfilment process, especially the last mile.
Managing delivery expectations effectively not only improves customer satisfaction it also reduces the missed deliveries that are so costly for any logistics business. In addition to minimising the number of expensive redeliveries, improving first time delivery performance avoids the risk of product damage or loss that can occur when customers are not at home. Leveraging notifications to reduce costs and improve the customer experience should be a key objective for any retailer over the next 12 months.
The entire delivery operation can also be significantly improved through intelligent, real-time route optimisation that improves delivery density. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will also play an increasing role throughout 2025 to further maximise the value of the existing fleet. By comparing planned delivery schedules with the actual performance over a period of time, AI can highlight specific addresses that cause problems – from a certain location that demands additional time to make the delivery to the impact of school drop off on local roads – to achieve far more delivery certainty.
Companies actively including essential driver feedback – such as potholes slowing down traffic – into the mix, can also avoid delays and improve overall delivery performance.
Encourage Behavioural Change
A key trend throughout 2025 will be the move towards driving behavioural change at the checkout to further enhance delivery cost effectiveness. Retailers can leverage up-to-date delivery information at the checkout to provide customers with intelligent date and time choices that support more efficient delivery schedules. Encouraging a customer to opt for the same delivery time as a neighbour by offering a low cost, even free delivery, for example, radically reduces travel distance and allows the retailer to be far more sophisticated about maximising capacity and sharing resources across defined geographic regions. Adopting this approach has enabled John Lewis to increase delivery capacity by 35% without adding vehicles or drivers and reduce fulfilment costs by £1.8 million.
As retailers gain confidence in exploring intelligence to meet different economic goals and customer expectations, the model will become ever more sophisticated. From matching delivery offers to customer delivery personas to including information around clean air zones and traffic restrictions within the routing model, retailers can ensure customer promises can be achieved without incurring profit denting fines. Sustainability goals can also be automatically factored into the process, allowing retailers to continually amend delivery options and prices, using low cost local ‘green’ deliveries to further improve customer perception and environmental performance in decarbonising fleet operations.
Critically, this process allows retailers to encourage customers towards delivery options that suit existing delivery schedules. This not only improves delivery density and gains operational cost benefits without adding stress to drivers, it enables retailers to meet rising customer expectations without resorting to the over-promising that can lead to disappointment.
Retailers have been improving their delivery performance year on year but the new financial pressures facing businesses throughout 2025 are raising the stakes. The letter written by over 80 UK retailers to UK chancellor Rachel Reeves in November 2024 predicted the challenges created by changes to National Insurance, the National Living Wage, and the ongoing packaging levy. With the latest BRC sales figures confirming their worst fears and the economic outlook for the UK looking bleak, efficient, effective and timely operational performance is now critical.
Real-time optimisation, in tandem with the use of intelligence to drive changes in consumer behaviour, will be key to achieving essential operational change. Using AI to continually assess both delivery performance and consumer persona response will allow retailers to further refine the process. How do customers respond to low-cost delivery offers in January following the festive overspend compared to peak season? Are consumers more likely to embrace green delivery slots if the retailer shares CO2 calculations or are price and convenience bigger incentives? The ability to leverage customers’ desires and behaviours will become an increasingly key weapon this year as retailers push to control costs without compromising experience.
In this episode of Logistics Business Conversations, host Peter McLeod speaks with Colm Gallagher, Chief Data Scientist at Hitachi ZeroCarbon, about the ambitious Electric Freightway initiative. With heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) responsible for 20% of UK transport emissions, Hitachi ZeroCarbon, in collaboration with Gridserve and other key industry players, is spearheading a data-driven transition towards electric HGVs.
Colm explains how this initiative tackles the “chicken-and-egg” dilemma between charging infrastructure and vehicle adoption, ensuring a synchronized rollout of electric HGVs and public/private charging networks. The discussion explores the role of real-world telemetry data in optimizing fleet operations, reducing costs, and informing industry-wide decarbonization strategies.
Key topics include
The economic viability of electric HGVs, the challenges of scaling up infrastructure, and the behavioural shift required within the logistics sector. Colm also shares insights into Hitachi’s role in analysing fleet performance, supporting operators in making data-driven decisions, and driving policy development for the UK’s 2040 diesel ban.
Tune in to discover how Electric Freightway is shaping the future of sustainable logistics, and what it means for fleet operators, policymakers, and the wider supply chain. Don’t forget to subscribe for more insights from industry leaders tackling today’s most pressing logistics challenges!
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