Shares digital

The shares of logistics solutions specialist Business Direct (BDG:AIM) shot up a whopping 22% to 1.4p after it clinched a three-year deal with Parcelforce Worldwide, part of the Royal Mail Group, for access to Business Direct’s network of more than 4,200 ParcelXchange intelligent locker secure drop-boxes.

Through the deal, Parcelforce will be given a pre-8am in-night delivery service to complement its existing portfolio of services. According to Nick Landon, head of UK marketing and commercial strategy for Parcelforce Worldwide, the deal will ‘allow sectors such as high tech, utilities and medical industries, or any field-based technician or engineer, to receive deliveries 24/7 at any of Business Direct’s ParcelXchanges throughout the UK’.

Business Direct issued a trading statement back in February cautioning that pre-tax losses for the full year would be around £3.4 million, compared with £1.9 million the previous year, with the result for the second half being worse than the £1.6 million reported for the first half. This was partly attributed to the lack of a pre-Christmas peak and the loss of a one-off project in January, as well as additional overhead costs resulting from write offs of balance sheet items.

Results for the year ending 31 January 2008 are due to be reported later this month.

Shares says: A promising deal but the group still has a lot of work ahead of it. Avoid for now