By Business & Finance 
Pictured: Tommy Kelly, founder and CEO of eShopWorld (ESW)
Asendia, the joint venture between La Poste Group and Swiss Post, announced the acquisition of eShopWorld (ESW). This is the latest step in Asendia’s strategy to make cross-border commerce easy and reliable worldwide.
Asendia, the joint venture between La Poste Group and Swiss Post, announced the acquisition of eShopWorld (ESW), a cross-border e-commerce enabler. Asendia has been the majority shareholder of ESW since 2017, and will now be its sole owner.
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 a cross-border end-to-end e-commerce company with the aim of helping brands and retailers make global shopping safer and faster. ESW’s powerful combination of the latest technology and human ingenuity covers the entire shopper journey across 200 markets.
The sale is likely to value ESW at about €1bn. The firm generated revenue close to €1bn last year, benefitting from a surge in online shopping due to the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.
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.”
