City Link Ltd.

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City Link

Type	Subsidiary
Founded	1969
Headquarters	Camberley, UK
Key people	Petar Cvetkovic MD, Colin Tyler FD
Industry	Courier
Products	Freight Forwarding Services Logistics Services
Revenue	£417.1 million GBP (2007)
Website	www.city-link.co.uk

City Link is a British next day courier company based in Camberley, Surrey, United Kingdom. City Link operates services in the UK including the Isle of Man from its hubs in Coventry, West Midlands and Wednesbury. The company is a part of the Rentokil Initial Group.

[edit] History

City Link was founded in 1969; and, in 1971, Robert J. (Bob) Thomas purchased a controlling interest in the company.

The business is steeped in British history, and was born out of the UK railway system where it utilised the once booming Red Star Parcels Rail service to transport goods door-to-door faster than any other courier company. It pioneered the introduction of same-day and next-morning door-to-door delivery services nationwide.

In the early 1970's City Link franchised the service, the first to do so in the industry. They quickly evolved and expanded due to a policy of continuous innovations and led the way in providing door-to-door delivery services.

City Link was the first courier to use British Airways’ Concorde to offer an express parcel "same day" service to New York. With the time difference between London and the Eastern Seaboard, the packages famously arrived before they had left!

In 1993 the company was acquired by the Rentokil Initial group, and its name changed to Initial City Link.

On the 20th November 2005 Initial City Link announced that as a part of its expansion programme, they were to ‘buy back’ the franchises. This was completed in March 2007 with the purchase of Tiger Haulage Ltd – City Link's Beds, Herts and Bucks franchise.

Exactly one year after Initial City Link announced its buy back scheme, Initial City Link finished negotiations with the shareholders of Target Express Ltd to purchase Target Express on 20th November 2006. Target was officially acquired and taken over by Initial City Link on 1st March 2007.

In late 2006 City Link's head office moved from Sunbury on Thames to Camberley in Surrey.

As a part of its merger with Target Express – City Link was planning to close 42 of the 110 combined branches in the first half of 2008 to provide a single integrated network. However at the end of February 2008 Petar Cvetkovic stated City Link have suspended further integration of Target Express depots until January 2009.

The company has now reverted to its original name – City Link.