The deal, which was completed on Friday (1 June), follows Whistl’s acquisition of Prism DM last July to become the second by the business since it underwent a management buyout in 2015 from PostNL, which retains a 17.5% shareholding.

Mail Workshop was launched in 2003 and provides e-commerce shipping and fulfilment, printed matter fulfilment, picking and packing. Parcelhub followed in 2010 and provides a multi-carrier shipping and e-commerce customer service offering for SME e-tailers.

Distributing more than 6 million parcels annually across the UK on behalf of hundreds of e-commerce, Ebay and Amazon retailers, the company employs 90 people at its Nottingham headquarters.

The business was founded by managing director Mark Rosenberg, who will continue to head up the business at its existing premises, and Steve Riley. The company will continue to operate under its standalone Parcehub and Mail Workshop brands and all staff have been retained.

Whistl, which is actively pursuing growth strategies in the doordrop media, parcels, fulfilment and international markets, said the acquisition enables it to optimise its current parcels services to customers and build on its “expertise and presence in the fulfilment market”.

Whistl UK chief executive Nick Wells said: “[Parcelhub and Mail Workshop] is a business that shares the same values as Whistl – providing excellent customer services cost effectively and also identified a gap in the market providing solutions for clients that could not access the services and discounts available to large volume mailers.

“Working together we will be able to optimise our current parcels services to customers and build upon our expertise and presence in the fulfilment market.”

Rosenberg added: “We have got to a stage in the development of the company that we need the extra firepower from Whistl to enable us to maximise our potential and to create opportunities for further growth.”

While Parcelhub and Mail Workshop’s turnover was not disclosed, Marlow-headquartered Whistl reported a turnover of just under £603m for 2017, up 1.9% on the previous year.

The company’s Doordrop Media division has separately just launched Leafletdrop, a new self-service digital platform aimed at SMEs.