New Delivery for Post Service – Article by Kings Hill 14th June 2012

A Kings Hill resident and businessman has come to the rescue of customers of the recently closed independent post and packing service on the development by buying the company and relaunching the service.Hugh Furness, whose barcoding and IT business – the third largest in the world – is based in East Peckham, was a regular user of Liberty Square based Post n’ Packing Warehouse, and, when it closed at the beginning of May, was keen to find a way of restoring the service.

“I have lived at Kings Hill for 10 years and am very involved with the community so I knew how the closure of the service was affecting people,” said Hugh. “I approached Liberty, the developer, to see if I could take over the lease on the premises and they were so incredibly helpful and supportive that the deal was done, and the business up and running, within two weeks.”

Hugh has taken over the business with Martyn Filby, a colleague at the East Peckham business and re-employed three of the former Post n’ Packing Warehouse staff, including office manager Mike Oliver.

Now called Post and Packing UK (www.postandpackinguk.com) the new company offers a wide range of personal and business postal and courier services, including DX document exchange for lawyers; mailboxes; document storage and archiving.

As well as Kings Hill, the catchment area includes Maidstone, Snodland, East Peckham and Rochester and there are plans to buy some tuk tuks for collections and deliveries in Kings Hill.

Worldwide express delivery and logistics company DHL has already approached the new company about becoming one of its hubs and, said Hugh, the reaction to the new business is ‘overwhelming’.

“People have been very supportive and we have received lots of cards from well-wishers,” he said. “I know we have made the right decision.”

Post and Packing UK is based in 5 Liberty Square and is open 9am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday and 10am to midday on Saturdays.

Andrew Blevins, managing director of Kings Hill developer Liberty Property Trust UK Ltd said that he was delighted someone had taken over the business and is continuing with the service. “We were very keen to support Hugh and Martyn in their efforts to preserve a service that people living and working in the Kings Hill community were telling us was valued,” he said.

“We tried to help the previous owners of the business for the same reasons but sadly they were unable to save it from closure and so we were very pleased when Hugh and Martyn came forward. We wanted to make it as straight forward as possible for them to set up the new business and are delighted it all went so smoothly.”