Today, Asendia, the joint venture between La Poste Group and Swiss Post, announced the acquisition of eShopWorld (ESW), the leading cross-border e-commerce enabler. Asendia is the majority shareholder of ESW since 2017.
Dublin-based ESW will remain a stand-alone entity, with the current management remaining. This investment facilitates the ESW team to accelerate the business expansion and further build on its technology and logistics capabilities for premium global brands. It also ensures it can increase its global footprint and revenues along with talent recruitment, enhancing its services in 200 international markets.
Employing over 500 staff globally, ESW is the cross-border end-to-end e-commerce leader, empowering the world's best-loved brands and retailers to make global shopping better, safer, simpler and faster. ESW's powerful combination of the latest technology and human ingenuity covers the entire shopper journey across 200 markets.
Acquiring full ownership of ESW is the latest step in Asendia's strategy to make cross-border commerce easy and reliable, supporting retailers to grow their e-commerce business internationally.
Marc Pontet, CEO, Asendia, said: "ESW are experts in making it easy for global brands to have a local presence. Additionally, its focus on making e-commerce frictionless, regardless of location, made it a coherent, strategic choice to make ESW part of the Asendia family. The move dovetails with our overarching aim to make worldwide e-commerce simple and reliable, and is a significant step in making this vision a reality."
Commenting, Tommy Kelly, Founder and CEO of ESW said: "This is a significant endorsement of ESW growth, sustainability and success in embracing the structural shift in favour of online shopping. The recently concluded transaction marks a deepening commitment by Asendia who have been a highly supportive partner and provider of complementary e-commerce services".
"I want to thank and pay tribute to our incredibly talented and loyal staff, who have been a key differentiator in ESW journey to becoming the world's leading cross border e-commerce enabler inside a decade. Our exceptional workforce, committed shareholder and scalable and well-invested platform means ESW is well poised for continuing growth and innovation, to better serve a growing demand for trusted online shopping".
Asendia was previously a majority shareholder of ESW, now it will be the sole owner.
Progress & Outlook:
Structural trends in favour of online shopping have accelerated post COVID 19 and ESW now expects to double its €1billion turnover over the coming years. Last October it announced annualised revenues of approximately €1 billion as it accelerated 160 new hires, taking employment at ESW to over 480 staff by year end 2020, a number that now exceeds 500. This already surpasses previously announced plans to reach 450 staff by year end 2021, and annualised revenues of €1billion over the coming years.