Pigeon Express gets GoJavas control

After failing to lock a deal with online platform Snapdeal, logistics firm GoJavas has managed to sell stake to courier service provider Pigeon Express, which will take over its operations. Pigeon’s Anand Rai will be managing director of the combined entity.

According to sources, Pigeon has bought a considerable stake in the company run till now by Quickdel Logistics. Its senior management will help resume the operations of GoJavas, which had last week shut down for technical reasons.

In July, talks between Snapdeal and GoJavas ended abruptly over valuation. Snapdeal was in discussion for a complete buyout, having in October last year put Rs 117 crore into GoJavas. At present, it holds 42 per cent stake, making it the biggest shareholder. Before that, Snapdeal had bought a 20 per cent stake in GoJavas for Rs 120 crore.

GoJavas now plans a performance-based model and would be on an expansion mode. It plans to bring in more clients.

Sources within the company said the senior management from Pigeon took charge last Friday. Most of the older departmental heads have exited. “Starting from the chief business officer, chief of human resource operations, chief strategy officer — almost everyone has resigned. In the past few days, the senior team from Pigeon was making rounds of the office. The new management has sent out an e-mail as well, in which it says things would now be better,” said a source in the company. Most of the last-mile delivery staff is still there.

GoJavas was founded in 2013 and has clients such as Jabong, Fabfurnish, Lenskart and Healthkart. This April, it named former ITC executive Amitabh Coomar its new chief executive officer, after Vijay Ghadge’s departure.

Sources said it would be business as usual with Snapdeal when operations restart in the next few days. “In fact, the first set of orders would be from Snapdeal when operations start. Snapdeal, while it is expanding in-house logistics arm Vulcan Express, would need partners to handle the coming festive season,” added the source.  Vulcan Express provides end-to-end logistics solutions to the marketplace's delivery centres. Ghadge, the former chief operating officer at GoJavas, has joined Vulcan Express as operations head.