Arizona-headquartered supply chain management company Blue Yonder said Thursday it plans to acquire U.K.-based Doddle to bring the reverse logistics specialist’s capabilities to the U.S. market.
The transaction, terms of which were not disclosed, is expected to close around mid-November. Tim Robinson, who founded Doddle in 2014 and is its CEO, will stay on post-acquisition.
Doddle began life in the physical distribution world, establishing a network of 500 “out-of-home” parcel pickup and delivery locations throughout the U.K. and providing the enabling backbone technology. Over time, however, as customers’ digital demands grew across a broader distribution expanse, Doddle morphed into an exclusive IT provider for both forward and reverse logistics services. It no longer has a physical footprint in the U.K.
While Doddle’s capabilities can be leveraged in markets in Europe, Australia and Japan, they will be focused primarily on the U.S. returns market, according to Mark Nordick, senior vice president and general manager of Global Logistics Service Providers, who said many U.S. retailers lack end-to-end returns visibility, a feature that Blue Yonder believes Doddle will bring to the table.
Doddle’s backbone will continue to be used to manage out-of-home operations and management for companies like Amazon.com Inc. and Australia Post, Blue Yonder said.
Blue Yonder, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is a unit of Panasonic Corp., which acquired Blue Yonder in 2021. Formerly known as JDA Software, Blue Yonder scaled its operations through multiple acquisitions, including RedPrairie, i2 Technologies and Manugistics.