In the delivery sector, Stuart has always stood out from its big competitors with a peculiar delivery model, based only on the relationship with companies (restaurants, shops, supermarkets) and not with the final consumer.
True to its model, the company continues to grow in Spain after adapting its delivery model to the rider law, which came into force in August 2021, requiring self-employed couriers to become employees. "In our case, we decided to incorporate 70% of the riders into the workforce and subcontract the remaining 30% to operating companies," says Matthieu Gonnet, general director in Spain of the French company, which was born halfway between Paris and Barcelona in the 2015.
The company ensures that after adapting to the new model, and having invested in technology and new operations, it has managed to maintain the average delivery time at 30 minutes, a common figure in the sector. Stuart does not break down absolute figures for his fleet of delivery drivers. In 2021, it reached 500 messengers, according to information shared by the company itself to this newspaper.
Regarding billing, Gonnet does not share figures either. "In 2021, we grew by around 25% due to the pull of the pandemic, which propelled online commerce due to confinement and the closure of restaurants." For this reason, growth was more moderate in 2022, standing at around 3%. According to figures from the Mercantile Registry, the company Stuart Delivery, with headquarters in Madrid, had a turnover of 21.9 million euros in 2021.
Looking to the future, the company, owned by the Geopost group (owner of Seur and the French postal service La Poste) intends to continue investing in Spain, one of the main countries where it operates, after France and the United Kingdom.
“In Barcelona we have the group's largest technological hub, where we employ 250 people. We also operate in Madrid and, from 2022, we also do so in the cities of Bilbao and Zaragoza”, explains the manager of the company, which has recently also entered Portugal, Italy and Poland.
This year, Stuart is not ruling out openings in cities and countries if the opportunity arises. “Growth will be organic, without acquiring competitors. Being part of the Geopost group, we have a solid financial position”. In Spain, the company has an ambition to recover double-digit growth. “We hope to boost turnover between 20% and 40% because we think that the market will normalize after the rider law and the pandemic. In no case are we going to decrease or lay off staff, as other technology firms have done”, concludes Gonnet.
