Staffordshire delivery firm spends £6m ahead of Christmas and recruits 140 extra staff

A £6million investment allowing a delivery group to secure extra land and new equipment at its parcel sorting centre as it gears up for the busiest period in its history has been announced.

Staffordshire-based delivery group APC is already recruiting another 140 staff as it prepares for what it predicts could be its busiest-ever festive season.

It has now bought a 2.5 acre plot of land next to its base, on Cannock's Kingswood Lakeside business park, so it can park more lorries and vans delivering and picking up parcels.

It has also invested in new equipment called 'sky sorters' – high level conveyor belt systems – to massively accelerate its speed in sorting the parcels.

APC chief executive Karl Brown said: "The level of investment we are making ahead of this year's peak period is the largest the organisation has ever made aside from the construction of our bespoke national sortation centre. This underlines our commitment to delivering exceptionally high service levels for our customers."

APC moved into its new base in Cannock a year ago from its previous home in Essington. The shift to the 12-acre site and its purpose-built 150,000 sq ft distribution building has allowed APC to more than doubled its workforce over the last 18 months, to more than 400.

It is taking on the extra 140 staff for its peak Christmas period, when it will be sorting around 150,000 parcels a night for its 115 depots around the country.

Part of the money has gone on buying a 2.5 acre plot of land next to the sortation centre which will increase the number of vehicles it can cater for overnight – it will be able to accommodate up to 92 lorries at anyone time.

Growth at ACP Overnight is already seeing it handle as many as 160 lorries every night, but the company says the new land will meant it will be better able to cope with its peak operating nights during the pre-Christmas rush, while keeping the local roads clear around the centre.

At the same time APC has bought two new sky sorters, which are currently being installed.

The firm's current conveyor system is able to process 20,000 – 25,000 MailPacks and CourierPacks per evening. The two new sky sorters, which will be installed directly above the existing system, will increase capacity to between 15,000 and 20,000 parcels per hour from the end of this month.

The company's success over recent years has seen it win both industry awards and be hailed as the Express and Star's Business of the Year in 2012 and 2013, making it the only company to have won the award twice.