Last-mile delivery platform Stuart – whose couriers fulfil orders for Tesco Whoosh, Iceland and Snappy Shopper – has been acquired by UK tech firm Quiver.
Quiver was founded in 2022 and provides the technology platform and couriers for retailers to offer customers delivery within one to two hours, as well as same-day scheduled slots. Its footprint has so far been limited to London, where it says it can deliver to more than 86% of homes.
“We’ve spent the last four years building a technology platform for retail; making ship-from-store, returns and exchanges really work for brands and their customers. Bringing Stuart into the business gives us scale, talent and a new roster of clients that helps us take the service to new sectors and new markets,” said Matthew Barrie, co-founder of Quiver.
“With its geographical reach and heritage in the grocery, food and quick service restaurant sectors, Stuart is the perfect fit,” he added.
Quiver has acquired Stuart’s parent company SRT Group from Munich-based private equity holding company Mutares. Stuart has changed hands several times. Founded in Paris in 2015 it was acquired two years later by GeoPost, the international subsidiary of the French Groupe La Poste. Mutares acquired the company in late 2023.
Mutares said that under its stewardship, Stuart has “streamlined its operations and built a strong foundation for its next phase of growth”.
“It has diversified its client base to reduce its reliance on a small number of large accounts, further invested in its proprietary technology to consolidate margins, and pursued growth through targeted client acquisitions and operational process optimisations, thereby significantly improving costs per order,” it said.
The company – which employs 70 staff and generates revenues of around €50m – is on track to achieve independent profitability by early 2027, it added.
“The European delivery landscape is gaining a formidable new alliance. We’re thrilled to start this new chapter working with the Quiver team,” said Cornelia Raportaru, CEO of Stuart.
“Stuart is in a stronger position than ever. This fresh energy, direction and technical capability proven with retail partners will enable us to deliver even more innovation and better service, shaping the future of last-mile logistics across any type of business,” she added.
While Stuart has seen growth in several European markets, including France and Poland, in the UK its white-label delivery offering has come under pressure, as aggregator apps Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat have launched their own white-label options – where customers order on a retailer’s own app but the delivery is handled by the apps’ couriers – to retailers.
Last year it lost its long-running partnership with Co-op.
The Quiver deal will involve “significant new investment in Stuart’s operations and technology” and a push into high-end retail.
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