InPost is conquering Great Britain. “It is the largest e-commerce market in Europe”

– InPost is a Polish company, built and developed for 25 years – emphasizes Rouse. He adds that the company is today “probably one of the most successful Polish entrepreneurship stories of the last two decades.”

The head responsible for InPost’s international development reminds that the company specializes in e-commerce logistics and deliveries made using parcel machines. “We really specialize in providing this solution using automated parcel machines and providing an alternative delivery method,” he says.

Great Britain as a strategic choice

Rouse leaves no doubt why the company has focused so strongly on the British market. – Simply put, it is the largest e-commerce market in Europe. So this is the biggest opportunity – he emphasizes. He adds that from the perspective of e-commerce, the British market is “about three times larger than the Polish market.”

In his opinion, when expanding abroad, a company must choose its markets very carefully. – Entering a new market requires a similar effort regardless of whether it is Great Britain or a much smaller country, such as Luxembourg, for example – he notes.

Therefore, as he emphasizes, it is necessary to choose those countries that offer the greatest growth potential. – You have to fish where the fish are – he says figuratively.

As the CEO of InPost points out, if the company wants to build a strong business outside Poland, it must be present on the most important markets in Europe. And this was the main motivation for entering Great Britain.

Over £600m by 2030

Despite the changes after Brexit, InPost does not intend to limit its ambitions in the UK. On the contrary. – We still see a lot of potential in this market – says Rouse. The company has already declared investments exceeding £600 million by 2030.

– Our presence here is a long-term investment – ​​emphasizes Rouse. He explains that the model developed by InPost is capital-intensive because it requires the construction of logistics infrastructure and the installation of parcel machines. – We invest in parcel lockers and logistics because we want to build a modern network for e-commerce – he says.

The scale of development is best shown by numbers. – Two years ago we had 120 employees in the UK. At the end of December we had 9,000 employees – says the head of InPost. As he points out, the company has grown both thanks to its own development and acquisitions.

Acquisitions: Menzies Distribution and Yodel

Takeovers were an important element of the British strategy. InPost bought two companies on this market – Menzies Distribution and Yodel. – One of them was Menzies Distribution, which was actually a traditional newspaper distributor. And the second one was a company called Yodel, Rouse recalls.

As he explains, both assets have been connected to the network of parcel machines already developed by InPost. – We combined both of these assets with our existing investment in a network of parcel lockers – he says. The goal was to create a comprehensive logistics model, similar to the one the company had previously built in Poland.

Brits still prefer home deliveries

Rouse points out, however, that Great Britain is currently at a different stage of development than Poland. Home delivery still plays an important role there and will remain an important part of the market for a long time.

– Door delivery still represents a large part of the market. And it will clearly continue to be an important part of the market in the future, he says. At the same time, the development of collection points and parcel lockers is just gaining momentum.

– Today we are approaching 15,000. parcel lockers in Great Britain. When Poland has 30 thousand – Rouse enumerates. In his opinion, this shows the scale of unused potential. – We have a lot to do to build capacity and a solution that will match this – he emphasizes.

At the same time, he emphasizes that it was the acquisitions that allowed the company to quickly increase its presence on the market. – We went from nothing to almost 8-9 percent. market within two years, he says.

E-commerce knows no boundaries

However, InPost’s ambitions go beyond the development of the local network in Great Britain. As Rouse explains, the next step will be to connect the British infrastructure with the rest of Europe.

– The next stage is to connect this British network with the rest of Europe – he announces. In his opinion, e-commerce has long ceased to be a purely domestic phenomenon. – Online trade has long ceased to be only local – he emphasizes.

He adds that today consumers buy not only from local sellers, but globally, and one of the biggest limitations to market development remains the capacity of logistics infrastructure. – This is clearly an opportunity that we see before us – says Rouse.

The Polish InPost model needs to be adapted, not copied

When asked about the challenges related to expansion, Rouse emphasizes that the starting point is always the model developed in Poland, but it cannot be transferred mechanically.

– We clearly have a very successful model in Poland – he says. As he adds, each market is at a different stage of maturity, so the company must adapt its entry method to local conditions. – We want to transfer proven elements of our model to new markets, but the most important thing is to find the right entry point and our own niche – he emphasizes.

Educating the client and fighting for London

Rouse also admits that in some markets the problem is not only infrastructure, but also customer habits. “In the UK, consumers are not very familiar with out-of-home deliveries or parcel lockers,” he says.

Therefore, one of InPost’s main tasks was to convince customers to use the new model. He adds that the company quickly noticed that the youngest buyers adapt much faster to convenient and mobile solutions. For this reason, InPost focused on the appropriate consumer groups, sellers and locations.

The starting point for development was London. “We focused on London as a starting point,” says Rouse. And he immediately explains why: – There is as much trade in London as in the whole of Poland.

At the same time, the capital of Great Britain turned out to be a difficult market from an operational perspective. – Space for parcel lockers and locations is not as easy as in other parts of Europe – he admits. This forced the company to be more flexible. – We had to look for new solutions and act more flexibly – he emphasizes.

The biggest challenge? People

One of InPost’s biggest challenges is the rapid development of the company in Poland and abroad. Therefore, as Michael Rouse emphasizes, sensible talent management is crucial. “We had to find a balance between exporting really good talent from Poland that understands our model and finding capabilities in the market that can work culturally and have the right DNA,” he says.

He adds that it is equally important to prepare these people to act independently.

– A year and a half ago I was looking for someone who ran a company worth 500 million. Today I need someone who can run a company worth PLN 2 billion, he emphasizes.

Rouse also spoke about cultural differences in the international organization. “The good news is that I’m Irish, so I see both sides,” he jokes.

In his opinion, one of the key challenges is the difference in communication style. – I believe that Poles communicate more directly and specifically – he says. He adds that in British culture, messages are often formulated more indirectly.

In his opinion, this may lead to misunderstandings, especially when it comes to the issue of hierarchy and the manner of conducting discussions in the company. – One of the most difficult challenges in building an international company is the issue of hierarchy – he says.

That’s why open communication is so important. – 15 minutes of conversation on a topic can save two months of misunderstandings – emphasizes Rouse.

Strong praise for Polish employees

Some of the strongest words of the InPost CEO came when assessing work ethics. Rouse openly admitted that Polish employees brought new energy and determination to the organization.

– I would say that complacency is building in the British work ethic – he said. As he added, it was broken, among others, thanks to Polish colleagues. “There is a greater hunger for success and a hunger to prove success,” he says.

The head of InPost does not hide the fact that he rates young people from Poland very highly. – If you ask me to choose today, I will be biased. I would choose a Polish student because I know I will get someone who is hungrier for success or more determined, he said.

Royal Mail threatens InPost? “It has its own challenges.”

When asked about Royal Mail, Rouse answers matter-of-factly, but without being overly gentle. “Royal Mail has its own challenges,” he says.

These include strong unionization, restrictions resulting from regulations and the need to maintain the traditional postal model. – Technology and data are not the foundation for building an e-commerce platform there – he says.

At the same time, he does not believe that Royal Mail’s activities in the area of ​​out-of-home deliveries are a threat to InPost. On the contrary.

“If Royal Mail wants to promote out-of-home deliveries, we’re perfectly fine with that,” he says.

The reason is simple, InPost already has the largest network in this segment. – We have the largest network and the largest solution, and it could take them 10 years to build and replicate the InPost network in the UK – emphasizes Rouse.

The British Embassy in Warsaw was responsible for organizing the meeting of journalists with Michael Rouse and entrepreneurs associated with the British market. The aim of the event was to support and promote the expansion of companies from Central and Eastern Europe in the United Kingdom.