It is a newcomer to the French delivery landscape.
The Dutch start-up Picnic, a home grocery deliverer using small electric vans, announced its arrival in the north of France on Wednesday and aims to expand into several medium-sized cities in the country.
Picnic recently started trials in the Valenciennes region with 300 “test clients” and plans to gradually make its application available to all city residents.
500 million euros in turnover in 2020
The turnover of the company, present in the Netherlands and in Germany, doubled in 2020 to reach 500 million euros and is expected to reach 1 billion in 2021, predicts the start-up, which has been able to take advantage of consequences of confinements and the health crisis.
“We have been preparing for the launch in France for two years,” Michiel Muller, co-founder of the start-up, said in a statement.
The distribution center in the suburb of Valenciennes will serve 60,000 households in the town, the company said.
An inexpensive model
Launched in 2015, Picnic says it has 650,000 customers in more than 125 Dutch cities and 350,000 customers in more than 40 German cities, whose groceries are delivered to homes free of charge, using more than 1,000 electric vans.
Picnic stands out from its competitors in home delivery thanks to an optimized logistical flow: it is he who dictates the delivery schedule, and even which homes can be delivered, depending on the route of the deliveryman, a relatively inexpensive compared to where each order will require sending a courier.
Lille
Lille: Paying the bicycle meal delivery men, what does that change?
Economy
Deliveroo: Flexibility, social protection ... the issue of the status of bicycle delivery men under debate
Food
Delivery man
Economy
Netherlands
Business
Race
Delivery