Evri (formerly Hermes UK), the UK’s largest dedicated parcel company has celebrated the opening of its new depot at Gatwick by donating £2k to St Catherine’s Hospice.

The ‘cheque’ was delivered by Stephen Byrnes, Depot Manager to Emma Peadon from the charity at the new 81,671sq ft distribution depot at Manor Royal which will increase parcel handling capacity in the area to support local demand. The money was raised following an approach by a company who offered a fee to use the new site as a back drop for some photography on behalf of Vodaphone.

Emma Peadon at St Catherine’s Hospice, said: “The pandemic has meant many of our fundraising events and activities haven’t gone ahead in the last two years, so we’re facing a severe shortfall in our funding. We are extremely grateful to business like Evri whose support helps ensure that we can continue to provide expert hospice care and ensure we’re there for local people when life comes full circle.”

Stephen Byrnes at Evri, said: “We’re incredibly excited to be opening our new facility, where we’ll be able to handle 200k parcels each day, double our previous capacity. We take our ESG responsibilities very seriously and the depot comes complete with EV charging to support our electric vehicle ParcelShop fleet, LED lighting on sensors throughout, rainwater harvesting, low carbon heating, solar panels and is built to BREEAM ‘Excellent’ certified specifications.  We have also been able to show our support for the local community from day one and make a donation to this fantastic charity.”