once upon a long time ago

. . . on the kitchen table of an unremarkable terraced house,  in the remarkable county of Yorkshire,  a new business was born.

Christened 'The Post House' by its proud expatriate parents,  this infant venture worked and worked,  under the watchful eye of a family friend,  for the next ten quiet and largely uneventful years.

Then,  one day in 2010,  a spanking new website and sprinkle of magic Google dust triggered a major growth spurt,  seeing the rapidly growing Post House treble in size within months!   Before very long,  those occasional trips to the local Post Office became a daily chore.   There were just too many shoe boxes to juggle,  too many addresses to jot down and oh too many stamps to lick!

The hero of our story needed new,  professional,  management,  and so was packed off to start a new life in West Wales.
The great adventure had begun.

the-post-house.com

On arriving in distant Pembrokeshire,  the now adolescent Post House had its tired business model restructured and was dressed in a brand new suit of grown-up clothes.

Postie settled quickly into its new home by the sea and flourished!   By mid 2014 new mailbox accounts were being added daily,  all arising from Google searches and word-of-mouth referrals.   Something,  however,  began arresting its development.   We looked closely at Google and discovered that most of the 1,300 potential customers who visited Postie's website each month had added geographical filters to their searches.   People were looking for mailboxes in specific locations!

It was also becoming clear that manually managing more than 200 accounts was impractical for our overworked Elves and that some form of automation would be necessary if the business was to truly blossom and achieve its full potential.

expost holdings limited...

In the absence of a crystal ball,  a business development plan confirmed the critical need for a software management system and clearly identified business format franchising as the only realistic means of meeting the untapped market demand for postal addresses in multiple town and city locations.   Magic beans from a Private equity investor were sown in March 2015 and the newly structured business was incorporated.
 

chapter two

and a new coming of age

expost.uk

In anticipation of a planned licence roll-out,  we launched the newly branded expost offering in March of 2015,  to be used as a direct analogue for all future Mail Centres.

To make this proof of concept as realistic as possible,  the Head Office Mailroom in Pembrokeshire has been operated completely independently from day one  ( as Expost Logistics Limited ),  with all revenue and costs accounted for separately,  producing actual figures upon which our initial licence performance projections were based.

building propost™

Development of the new management system began in April of 2015 and,  by August,  we had incorporated its primary functions into the national expost.uk website.   The effects were immediate and dramatic.   Now in its third iteration,  with a mobile App on the way,  ProPost™ has dramatically streamlined all management and accounting functions,  slashing handling time and Elf labour costs.

Aside from simplifying mail log-in and despatch,  ProPost™ allows every customer to access and control their own account,  administers all sales and financial transactions,  issues email & SMS notifications,  and flags unusual activity.   By fulfilling these otherwise manual functions,  it has eliminated the limit to the number of accounts that can be managed by a single Mail Centre.

chapter three

regional mail centre roll out

Having established regional Mail Centres in South Wales,  Scotland,  the Home Counties,  Midlands and South West,  the first phase of our UK licence roll out was completed in October 2018 when we establish a Brexit-ready presence in Northern Ireland.

Only four further locations are planned,  in London,  Manchester,  Yorkshire and the North East.   Together,  these Regional Centres make up our complete UK network,  each with their geographical exclusivity protected by contract.

Given the number of enquiries that our support team receives,  we have become increasingly aware of the need for an expost Mail Centre to serve the Southern counties and South Coast of England.

and tomorrow. . .

a glimpse into our common future

the expost app

This free-to-download mobile App is already in development and will allow customers to control their accounts at the touch of a screen.   It will also incorporate at least one mobile payment systems,  and be fully cross-platform compatible with Android,  Windows and iPhone operating systems.