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New owners aim to rejuvenate courier firm

New IBC team: pictured, from left, are Joseph Costigan, partner IBC Bermuda and CEO of IBC USA; Glen Smith, ZipX chairman; and Theo Klimatsidas, CEO of IBC Bermuda (Photograph by Blaire Simmons)

Courier firm IBC has been revamped under its new owners.

The firm is to introduce lower prices and new services, including a return service and a low-cost “featherweight” category.

And IBC has also linked up with overseas suppliers of goods to discounts on items shipped to an IBC ZipX package service address.

Glen Smith, chairman of IBC Bermuda, said: “We have listened to our customers and their concerns over the last several months.

“We used this important feedback to develop new practices and protocols to address the issues our clients were experiencing with our service, particularly our ZipX service.

“We have worked hard with our team of 37 staff to put these new practices into place and now we are tremendously excited about the opportunity and value that this transition represents for our business, our customers and our employees.”

And he added: “Once the business is sustainable, because the business when we first got it was on life support, we are going to look to grow. But first we have to get up and running and get the clients believing in it.”

Mr Smith, the managing director of Auto Solutions in Pembroke, is part of an group that bought IBC from former owners BAS Services in January.

The group includes IBC US and Bermudian investors, with IBC US CEO and president Joseph Costigan as a partner in the new venture.

Theo Klimatsidas is the new president and CEO of IBC Bermuda.

The original IBC was founded on the island nearly 30 years ago with Mr Smith and Mr Costigan’s father, also Joseph, part of the original management team.

Mr Smith said: “We have a dedicated team in place locally and overseas and, with our people, we are now better positioned as a company to deliver the very best customer service to our valued customers.”

Mr Klimatsidas said that ZipX had been the number one package service in the 1990s and early 2000s, but had dropped away in recent years.

But he added: “We are introducing new lower pricing across the board for our ZipX service starting this month.

“We are also introducing completely new services, such as our ZipX Return service and our ZipX Featherweight service.”

Mr Costigan added that the firm had struck a deal with a number of US retailers where buyers can get discounts of up to 15 per cent when items are ordered and shipped by ZipX.

He said: “We are signing on new partner retailers almost daily and thereby offering our ZipX customers savings with popular US retail outlets.”

The IBC building, on Park Road in Hamilton, has been renovated since the new owners took over in January and new branding for vehicles and staff uniforms is to be introduced.